Queen of Swords
by Speaker-to-Customers
Summary: Elisif knows she's the Empire's candidate for High Queen only because they regard her as weak and biddable; until a hasty trip to Helgen, to witness Ulfric's execution, sends her into deadly peril but also reveals a new side to her. With a new and lethal friend, the unlikeliest of Dragonborns, as her mentor she sets out to become a true warrior queen.
1. My Enemy's Enemy

Author's Note: sorry about the six-month hiatus in my writing; it was due to real-life issues. If you're waiting for updates to _The Dark Companion_ , _Tabula Avatar_ , and _Divakiin!_ don't worry, I have resumed work on all three, but the opening chapter of this new _Skyrim_ fic was ready first and so I'm posting it straight away.

 **Queen of Swords**

 **Chapter One: My Enemy's Enemy**

Elisif shivered. It was colder in Helgen than at home, despite Falkreath Hold being well to the south of Solitude, but that wasn't the cause of her shivers; she was a Nord, with a natural resistance to cold, and her clothes were thick enough to keep her warm. It was the impending executions that were sending cold chills through her.

"General Tullius," she said, trying to sound firm and determined, "I must protest. These summary executions are not justice."

The general raised his eyebrows. "I would have thought you would have been eager to see the man who murdered your husband suffer the penalty for his crimes, Jarl Elisif," he said. He was shorter than Elisif by several inches and had to tilt his head back to look her in the eye. Despite that his tone, as he addressed her, was not unlike that of a schoolmaster speaking to a pupil who had failed to understand the lesson. "Isn't that why you hastened here, accompanied only by your Housecarl, as soon as you heard of Ulfric's capture?"

"I came here to make sure that Ulfric was taken to Solitude for a proper trial," Elisif corrected him. "Justice must be seen to be done." She'd come across that concept in a treatise on the principles of good governance, which she'd read in an attempt to make herself ready for her role as prospective High Queen, but unfortunately it hadn't included instructions on how to get people to do what she told them.

"That would be a bad idea," Tullius replied. "It would just give him a platform from which to spout his treasonous ideas and spread the rebellion. And it would be difficult to guard against him using his Voice to escape, or to kill you. No, better to nip this rebellion in the bud, quickly and with minimum fuss. The Emperor gave me orders to do exactly that and it's what I'm going to do."

"I suppose you're right," Elisif conceded, and her shoulders slumped as she felt her confidence drain away.

"I also must protest," Elenwen put in. The Thalmor Emissary was a High Elf, taller than Elisif's five feet ten by three or four inches, and she towered over General Tullius. "Under the terms of the White-Gold Concordat the rebel Talos-worshippers should be handed over to the Thalmor."

"Treason takes precedence," Tullius stated. "I have the Emperor's warrant. They go to the block here and now." Elenwen frowned, and her mouth set into a tight line, but she stepped back and did not speak again.

"Do you have to execute the other prisoners?" Elisif appealed. "Won't they just disband, and go back to their homes, once Ulfric is dead and their cause lost?"

"It's more likely that they'd regard Ulfric as a martyr and keep on fighting," Tullius said. "They all go to the block and that's final."

"Even the Breton girl? It's obvious she's not one of them," Elisif pointed out. The young woman in question stuck out like a sore thumb among the prisoners. She was shorter by several inches than any of the Nord women, she wore a ragged tunic instead of the quilted armor and blue-grey sash that was the Stormcloak uniform, and her head was shaven into a barbaric topknot. "If she was dressed like that when you captured her I would guess that she was a prisoner of the Stormcloaks rather than one of them. Isn't there a saying 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'?"

"I can think of many instances in which the enemy of my enemy is my enemy too," Tullius said. "She looks like one of the Forsworn to me. In that case she's also in rebellion against Skyrim and the Empire."

"You can't condemn her just for looking like one of the Forsworn!" Elisif protested. "We should take her back to Solitude, find out who she is, and treat her as innocent unless she is proven guilty." Another concept that she'd picked up from the books she had been reading.

"Oh, very well," General Tullius said, with a sigh. "But she's your responsibility. Captain, send her over here."

"At your orders, General," replied the female captain who was overseeing the Imperial legionaries guarding the captives. "You heard the general, prisoner. Move!"

The barbarian girl grinned, stepped out of the Stormcloak ranks, and walked over to where Elisif and her steel-clad Housecarl stood. Bolgeir Bearclaw, who took his role as Elisif's protector very seriously, glowered at the woman and rested a hand on the hilt of his Orcish sword. The girl didn't seem intimidated in the least.

Elisif looked the Breton girl over. She saw that the girl had unusual eyes; silver grey, so pale that at first glance they looked almost blank and sightless. The streaks of war-paint around her eyes were smudged and there was a dark bruise on her cheek-bone. She looked up at Elisif, who must have been at least six inches taller, and smiled.

"I thank you, my lady," she said. "I am Kaie of… Markarth."

"We've delayed long enough," General Tullius declared, before Elisif could reply to Kaie. "Ulfric Stormcloak, some may call you a hero, but a hero doesn't use a power like the Voice to murder his king and attempt to usurp the throne."

Ulfric, who was gagged to prevent him from using the power of his Voice, gave a muffled grunt in response.

"You started this war," Tullius went on, "flung Skyrim into chaos, and now the Empire is going to put you down and restore the peace."

At that moment a strange roaring noise, unlike the cry of any animal with which Elisif was familiar, came from somewhere outside the town. Legionaries, townspeople, and prisoners all looked around for the source of the noise.

"What was that?" exclaimed the soldier who had been checking the prisoners off against a list.

"Nothing of importance," General Tullius said. "Carry on with the executions."

"Yes, General Tullius," the captain said, and she turned to face the priestess of Arkay who stood with the general and his aides. "Give them their last rites."

The priestess began the ritual commendations of the soon-to-be deceased's souls to Aetherius and the invocations to the Eight Divines. She was interrupted by one of the Stormcloaks. He told her to shut up, walked forward to the block, and knelt down as if eager to lose his head. The headsman obliged.

Elisif gasped in horror. She wanted to look away but found herself unable to avert her eyes from the horrid spectacle. The blood… she remembered Torygg's blood pooling on the throne-room floor…

"Next prisoner," said the captain. "Ralof of Riverwood."

Once more the odd roaring noise rang out.

"There it is again," said the soldier with the lists. "Did you hear that?"

"I said, next prisoner," the captain said.

"To the block, Ralof – prisoner," the soldier commanded. Elisif thought he sounded sad and, indeed, almost guilty. She guessed, from the way he'd used the Stormcloak's name, that the two had known each other before the rebellion started. "Nice and slow."

Ralof, a typically blond and bearded Stormcloak, walked to the block and knelt down. Then the roar sounded again, far louder, and a dark shadow swept across the courtyard.

"What in Oblivion is that?" General Tullius cried.

"Sentries, what do you see?" called the captain.

"It's in the clouds," a soldier answered.

Elisif looked up and saw…

…a dragon. An immense, winged, reptilian creature swooping down and landing atop one of the towers. It perched there, glaring down upon them with baleful eyes, and then opened its huge jaws and bellowed. A cone of force shot forth from its mouth, knocking the headsman from his feet, and then a rain of blazing boulders began to fall from the sky. Rocks as big or bigger than human heads, trailing fire behind them, as if the town was being bombarded by a score of siege catapults. Within seconds everything was chaos and confusion.

Elisif saw a rock smash through the thatched roof of a house, the fire turning the building into an instant inferno, and then another rock landed on the prone body of the headsman and smashed him into pulp. She screamed and covered her face with her hands.

"We have to get out of here, my Jarl," Bolgeir shouted. He had drawn his sword but it was useless against the dragon, which had taken to the air again, and he had no bow. "Come on! This way!" He took Elisif by the elbow, with his left hand, and urged her toward the nearest stone tower. Kaie ran alongside.

Legionaries were loosing arrows into the air, to no effect as far as Elisif could see, and townspeople were running for cover and fleeing from burning buildings. The Stormcloak prisoners had broken free, as the guards were fully occupied in trying to fight the dragon, and were scattering in all directions. Some of them were entering the tower ahead of Elisif's little group and she faltered. Bolgeir and Kaie slowed, also, and both seemed to be looking for alternative places to take shelter.

Suddenly Elisif felt the hand holding her elbow jerk savagely and release its grip. She looked that way and saw Bolgeir sprawled on the ground. She bent to help him up and then realized that his head had been crushed by a falling rock. She screamed again and froze.

Kaie scooped up Bolgeir's fallen sword. "Come on, lady," she urged, holding the sword awkwardly in her bound hands. "If we stay out here we die."

The dragon passed overhead and unleashed a jet of flaming breath from its jaws. The flames washed over a nearby archer and turned him into a human torch. Elisif forced herself to move and, with Kaie, ran into the tower. Better the Stormcloaks than the dragon.

Elisif stood in the room at the foot of the tower, panting, and then realized that one of the Stormcloaks who had run this way was Ulfric himself. Ralof, the warrior who had been on the brink of execution when the dragon interrupted, had freed his own hands and was in the act of untying Ulfric.

"Jarl Ulfric," Ralof said, as he pulled free the gag in Ulfric's mouth, "What is that thing? Can the legends be true?"

"Legends don't burn down villages," Ulfric replied, and then his eyes met Elisif's. "What's this? It would seem Talos is watching over us. The dragon freed us and now the perfect hostage has been delivered into our grasp. With Elisif in our hands the Imperials won't dare try to stop us from escaping. Seize her! And kill that Forsworn spy."

Elisif gasped in horror. If they captured her she couldn't see them letting her go once they were clear of Helgen. No, Ulfric would keep her as a captive indefinitely, as it would tie the hands of the Legion and make quelling his rebellion more difficult, or he might even – oh, Divines no! – force her into marriage to solidify his claim to the High Kingship. She had to get away… but to run out of the door into the courtyard, even if she could get past Ulfric and his men, would be only to invite a fiery doom.

The tower was part of the outer walls, not of the keep, and had only the one exit. A panic-stricken glance around showed her one slight hope. The winding staircase that led up to the roof of the tower. Going all the way up to the top would make her easy prey for the dragon but there was a flat section, half-way up, beside an arrow slit. From that vantage point perhaps she and Kaie could hold off the handful of Stormcloaks until, hopefully, some Imperial soldiers arrived.

"Up the stairs!" she called to Kaie, and she ran up the stone steps as fast as she could; only to come face to face with another Stormcloak descending to that firing platform from higher up the stairs. She recoiled, backing away, realizing that she was trapped.

Kaie was brandishing Bolgeir's sword as best she could, hampered by her bound hands, and spitting out what were presumably curses in a language that Elisif didn't understand. The Stormcloaks, who were armed only with a couple of Imperial swords no doubt dropped by dead legionaries, were taking their time closing with her.

Then the tower wall exploded inwards above Elisif. The dragon's snout burst through the stone at the level of the arrow slit, knocking the Stormcloak from his feet, and its fiery breath enveloped him. He went down, screaming, and an avalanche of stone blocks landed on top of him and crushed his body. Elisif screamed too, although she was unhurt, but managed to control her panic enough to resume her upward course once the dragon had withdrawn its head and flown off. The staircase was now blocked off by the rubble, ending at the platform, but Elisif hadn't intended to go any higher anyway.

"Kaie!" she called. "Up here! Maybe we can hold them off!"

The Forsworn girl ascended the stairs, keeping her sword raised, and joined Elisif. Kaie looked out through the gap in the wall.

"Jump!" she said to Elisif. "Down there."

Elisif's first thought was that the girl was suggesting suicide, as they were too high above the courtyard to land without breaking their necks, but she looked out and saw that they were not far above the roof of one of Helgen's houses. A hole had been torn through the thatch, exposing the building's upper floor, but it didn't seem to be on fire.

"If we jump onto that roof," Kaie went on, "we can get down to the ground from there. It might not be safe but better than staying here. Unless you want the Stormcloaks to catch you…?"

Ralof, and another man, were climbing the stairs toward the two women. Elisif decided that Kaie was right. She hitched up the skirts of her gown, freeing her legs, and leapt.

She landed awkwardly, one of her feet sinking into the thatch and sending her sprawling, but she seemed to be unhurt except for scratches. She took a few seconds to get her foot free of the thatch and then, before she could slide down to the ground, she heard a sound she had heard one terrible time before.

"FUS RO DAH!"

It was Ulfric using the Thu'um, the Shout he had used to fell Elisif's husband, this time aimed at Kaie. The barbarian woman was blasted out of the gap in the tower wall; she sailed past Elisif to fall through the hole in the house's roof, and she landed somewhere in the building's upper floor. Elisif reversed her course and, instead of sliding down the thatch, she jumped down into the house.

Elisif's heart was in her mouth; she feared that she would find only Kaie's shattered body. To her relief she saw that the Breton girl had landed on a bed, which had broken her fall, and she was already scrambling to her feet. The sword was embedded, point down, in the bed. Elisif pulled it free and used it to cut Kaie's bonds.

"Thank you, lady," Kaie said. Above their heads the thatch ignited and flames began to spread. "We have to get out of here! This way!" She ran across the room, Elisif following, and jumped down through a hole where the stairs had been. The timbers of the broken staircase were beginning to burn, and above their heads the thatch was now well ablaze, and they ran out of the house as fast as they could go.

Outside was little better. Dead bodies, townsfolk as well as soldiers, littered the ground. Most of the town's houses were blazing. The dragon was swooping down in repeated passes, sometimes using its flaming breath to kill, sometimes seizing soldiers in its claws and carrying them off. A dead horse lay in the courtyard, its body partly charred and with one of its legs missing, and Elisif gulped as she recognized it as her own. There was no sign of the horse that had been Bolgeir's. She found herself running parallel to the legionary who had been marking lists, heading toward where General Tullius was commanding a small group of soldiers, but another pass by the dragon sent burning wreckage across the courtyard and cut them off from the general.

"Hadvar! Get Jarl Elisif to the keep!" Tullius shouted.

"At your orders, General," the soldier, Hadvar, replied. "Follow me, Jarl Elisif."

Hadvar led the way through an archway. Elisif and Kaie ran after him as he headed for the keep. They reached one of the doors and made it inside just ahead of another pass from the dragon. Hadvar slammed the door behind them and, mere seconds later, the stone wall shuddered as something massive struck it. The lintel above the door sagged and crunched into the wood.

The three spent a few seconds doing nothing but gathering their breath and then Hadvar tried the door.

"Stuck fast," he announced. "We won't be going back out that way, even if the dragon goes away." He shook his head. "A dragon. A harbinger of the End Times. I can hardly believe it."

Elisif looked around the room. It seemed to be a barracks dormitory, with a row of beds along one wall, tables and weapon racks along the other. There was a door at the far side, no doubt leading deeper into the keep, so at least they weren't sealed in.

"Jarl Elisif, I shall do my best to get you safely away from Helgen," Hadvar said. "There is a secret way out somewhere under the keep, or so I have heard, through some caves. I don't know how to get to it, though, as I was never part of the Helgen garrison. And I saw some of the Stormcloak prisoners heading for one of the other keep entrances. We might come upon them, as we look for the way out, or indeed they might blunder upon us here."

"Then I will fight them," said Kaie.

Hadvar frowned at her. "Do you trust this prisoner, Jarl Elisif?" he asked.

Elisif hesitated for only a moment before replying. "Yes," she told him. "She helped me escape Ulfric, and he tried to kill her. That's good enough for me."

"The lady – Jarl Elisif? – spoke up for me to save me from the execution block," Kaie said, "and her enemy is my enemy. I shall fight for her."

"That's… good to hear," said Hadvar. "In that case, you'd better find yourself some armor. There should be some in those chests and hopefully you'll find something to fit you." He turned back to Elisif. "It might be a good idea for you to put on some armor too, Jarl Elisif," he suggested. "Even if you don't do any fighting it would give you some protection in case a Stormcloak got past us and went for you."

Elisif shook her head. "I've never worn armor," she said, "and I wouldn't know how to move in it. And Ulfric told his men to capture me, not to kill me."

"They might see that as no longer a viable option," Hadvar warned her, "and decide that killing you would be at least a partial victory. Take a sword, at least, so that you might be able to keep an attacker at a distance." He went to a weapon rack, slid free a scabbarded sword, and handed it to Elisif. She took the weapon, reluctantly, and buckled it around her waist.

Kaie had found a leather jerkin of the pattern worn by Imperial scouts. She laid down Bolgeir's sword, pulled off the ragged tunic she wore, and cast it aside to stand naked; she had worn nothing under the tunic. Hadvar blushed and averted his eyes. Then Kaie donned the armor; it went down to mid-thigh and she was decent again. She sat down on a bed and pulled on a pair of boots. "A little large for me," she commented, "but they will protect my feet better than footwraps alone."

"Don't you wear… underwear?" Elisif asked.

Kaie gave a mirthless smile. "The Stormcloaks stripped me naked," she said. "They might have done worse if the Imperials had not attacked at that moment. I was grateful for my rescue… until they bound me and threw me into a prisoner wagon with the Stormcloak bastards."

"Sorry about that," Hadvar said. "They must have thought you were a… camp follower."

The chest had also held a sword-belt. Kaie drew the sword, looked at it with her upper lip curling into a sneer, and tossed it back into the chest. "A poor weapon," she said, "but perhaps the scabbard will hold this Orcish sword." She buckled on the belt and managed to get Bolgeir's sword into the sheath. "My own swords were not as fine as this weapon," she said, "but my armor was enchanted. Left behind at Darkwater Crossing, and lost forever now, I would guess."

Elisif wondered what Kaie, who she now was sure really was a member of the Forsworn, had been doing spying on the Stormcloaks so far from the Reach. This wasn't the time to go into the matter, however, and she said nothing.

"This must be a barracks for auxiliaries," Hadvar said. "Only light armor, and the swords are not of the usual Imperial pattern. We might find something better, deeper in the keep, but they'll have to do for now." He went to the inner door and opened it. "We'd better get moving."

The corridor beyond the door led to a room in which there were two Stormcloaks. Hadvar tried to negotiate a truce but they attacked before he could get out more than a few words. They were armed with war-hammers, not weapons used by the Imperials, so they must have found where their captors had stored those taken in the ambush. One went for Hadvar and the other, a woman, aimed a blow at Kaie.

Hadvar blocked with his shield and was driven back a step. He retaliated with his sword and managed to carve a shallow gouge along his opponent's arm. Kaie avoided her assailant's swing with an agile side-step and then, as the force of the Stormcloak woman's wasted blow sent her stumbling off-balance, Kaie's sword-arm blurred and the blade slashed through the Stormcloak's throat. The hammer fell to the ground, the woman clutched at her throat, and then she toppled with blood spurting from between her fingers. Before she had hit the floor Kaie had taken two quick steps forward and rammed her sword into the back of Hadvar's foe.

Elisif gasped. Kaie's lethal efficiency was… chilling. And yet she felt a sudden rush of envy. If she could fight like that then her Thanes might take her seriously. Bryling held warriors in high regard, and always seemed to treat Elisif with disguised contempt, and Erikur didn't hold anyone in regard but would back down if faced by someone sufficiently intimidating. Elisif, unfortunately, couldn't intimidate him in the slightest.

Kaie wiped her sword clean on the Stormcloak's sash and then returned it to its scabbard. "Yes, this is indeed a fine weapon," she said.

"You use it well," Hadvar complimented.

"We have to learn well, in the Reach," Kaie replied.

"Why were you so far from home?" Elisif asked.

Kaie took a few moments before she replied, staring straight at Elisif with those odd silver eyes, and then she spoke. "One of our… wise women had a vision," Kaie revealed. "She told me that I had a chance to be favored by the gods, and to gain great power, and that the path to that power began at Darkwater Crossing. When I came upon Ulfric Stormcloak, away from his stronghold and accompanied by a mere thirty warriors, I thought that she meant I was to slay him. Such a deed would, indeed, have gained me enough prestige among my people to open the path to power. I never got the chance. A wolf attacked me, as I spied upon the Stormcloak camp, and in killing it I gave away my position. They came for me, and took me, and then the Imperials attacked. You know the rest."

Elisif's eyes widened. Kaie had regarded Ulfric as vulnerable when he was with 'a mere thirty warriors'? No doubt she had intended to assassinate him by stealth, rather than by open attack, but it still implied that she was formidable. Or, at least, had a very high opinion of her own abilities. And after seeing her in action Elisif thought Kaie's opinion was likely to be correct.

With the fight over Elisif was able to look around the room and she saw that there were three other dead bodies on the floor; one Stormcloak and two Imperials, one of them the captain who had been in charge of the execution detail.

Hadvar went over to the Imperial corpses and stood looking down at them. "May you rest in Sovngarde, comrades," he said.

"Their swords are gone," Kaie observed. "The Stormcloaks we slew did not have them and so there must be others ahead of us. We'd better watch out."

"Indeed," Hadvar agreed. He moved away and led the way onward, down a flight of winding steps, and into a long corridor. They had taken only a few steps along the passage when they heard a muffled roaring and then a section of ceiling, ahead of them, collapsed and blocked the corridor.

"Damn, that dragon doesn't give up easily," Hadvar said. There was a door in the corridor wall, before the point where the rubble had fallen, and he indicated it. "We'll have to go that way. Careful, I can hear voices."

Elisif listened and heard someone saying "The Imperials have potions in here. We're going to need them." That meant the speaker had to be a Stormcloak. There was no alternative route, however, and they had no choice but to go in through the door.

Three Stormcloaks, this time, and just as eager as their fellows to attack on sight. Kaie made a spell-casting gesture with her left hand and the translucent figure of a spectral wolf appeared ahead of her. It launched itself at the nearest Stormcloak and Kaie and Hadvar took on the other two.

Kaie's opponent was armed with sword and shield, and was more skilled than the woman she had slain earlier, and this time she did not achieve a quick victory. Her wolf familiar snapped at its target but the Stormcloak ignored it, relying on his armor to protect himself from its bites, and rushed directly at Elisif.

Her first impulse was to turn and run but she managed to control her fear and, instead, drew her sword. She almost lost her grip on the weapon, as it came free with a jerk, and only just kept hold of it and waved it inexpertly.

"Die, false Queen!" the Stormcloak cried, as he swung his greatsword in a downward arc.

Elisif side-stepped, just as she had seen Kaie do in the previous fight, and the blade whistled past her and struck sparks from the stone floor. The wolf familiar jumped at the man and he staggered. Elisif tried to emulate Kaie and take advantage of the opportunity to slash open her opponent's throat. She missed her target and, instead of the throat, the sword tore across the Stormcloak's face. And, as the point scraped on bone, she lost her grip on the weapon.

The Stormcloak howled in pain. The sword clattered on the ground. And the injured man raised his greatsword for another stroke; not overhead for a downward smite, this time, but waist-high for a sweeping cut parallel to the ground. And Elisif had no idea how to defend herself or evade.

The obvious course was to jump back but something made Elisif go forward instead. She collided with the man's chest and, instead of the sword blade biting into her side, it was the Stormcloak's arm that thumped into her. Jarring, even painful, but inconsequential. Blood from his wounded face splashed onto her but she ignored it and, driven by instinct and fury, brought up her right hand and punched the Stormcloak on the jaw.

And then, as he staggered back, she followed up and hit him with her left. Blood flew and more drops splattered on Elisif's gown. He roared, caught his balance, and raised his sword again only to stagger once more as Kaie's ghostly wolf bit him on the backside. He turned around and chopped down at the wolf, splitting it in half and causing it to be dispelled, while Elisif took the opportunity to pick up her sword from the floor.

She didn't need to use it. Kaie had slain her opponent and now came to Elisif's aid. The Stormcloak hesitated, torn between two threats, and then swung at Kaie. She parried, deflecting the blow just enough to miss her rather than blocking directly, and then riposted and thrust through his heart. She withdrew her sword at once, and turned back to assist Hadvar, but he had just finished off his own opponent and did not need her help.

Kaie wiped clean her sword. "You did well, for one without training," she told Elisif. "You have spirit. How did you lose your sword?"

"It came out of my hand when I hit him with it," Elisif admitted.

"I will show you how to hold it properly," Kaie offered.

"Here, take this," Hadvar said, holding out the sword his fallen foe had been wielding. "An Imperial sword, of good steel, and better balanced than the poor iron one you had. You will find it easier to grip."

"My foe also wielded an Imperial sword," Kaie said. "I have a better idea. I dual-wield, but for that I need two swords that match. Take back the blade that was your bodyguard's and I will use both Imperial swords."

A minute later Elisif found herself holding Bolgeir's sword, an iron-reinforced shield on her left arm, and a steel dagger at her belt as a back-up weapon. Kaie was swinging an Imperial sword in each hand, accustoming herself to their balance, and then going through some practice parries and strikes.

"I saw you summoning that… familiar, so you must be a mage," Elisif said. "Don't you need a hand free for spell-casting?"

"I am a Nightblade, trained in the arts of stealth, swordplay, archery and some magic," Kaie confirmed, "but I am less accomplished in spell-casting than some and my Magicka pool is weak. I prefer to cast a summoning spell and then fight with swords."

"It seems to work well," Hadvar said. "I've found some healing potions. We should share them out and move on."

Down another flight of steps and into a large room in which stood three iron cages, in one of which was a dead prisoner, and manacles set into the walls from which a skeleton hung. "A torture room," Hadvar said. "Gods, I wish we didn't need them."

"We don't," Elisif said. "Torture is dishonorable. And if word spreads that we use torture Ulfric could use that to rally recruits to the Stormcloak clause."

Kaie flashed her a smile. "Well spoken," she said. "You have wisdom, and a heart, as well as spirit."

Elisif returned the smile, but couldn't help feeling that it was ironic that she had gained this warrior maid's respect simply by speaking her mind, and getting through a fight without dying, whereas her Steward, her Thanes, General Tullius, Elenwen, and most of the other Jarls seemed to regard her as little more than a child to be alternately humored and ignored.

"More dead Imperials," Hadvar observed, pointing to two corpses in torn and slashed Imperial light armor. "There must be Stormcloaks ahead of us still."

The corridors under the keep led them to a natural cave, with an underground stream running through it, that was dimly illuminated by daylight filtering down through holes in the rocky roof overhead. It was there that they caught up with more Stormcloaks. No Ulfric, luckily, but there were five of the enemy and Kaie and Hadvar couldn't prevent one of them from breaking past and making for Elisif.

"Take the pretender Queen alive!" one of the others shouted. "Skyrim belongs to the Nords!" The one attacking Elisif raised a mace, as if for a skull-crushing blow, but obeyed his comrade and struck with the butt rather than the weighty head of the weapon.

Elisif brought up her shield and, to her surprise, managed to block the attack. For an instant her assailant was off balance, his weapon and his other arm out of position, and Elisif acted out of sheer instinct without even thinking. Her right hand drove forward and thrust her sword through his light cuirass, and into his stomach, just below his ribs.

Elisif pulled the sword free, bringing forth a gout of blood, and backed away as the Stormcloak collapsed. She wanted to run away, or be sick, or both. But Kaie and Hadvar were being pressed hard, even with the aid of another spectral wolf, and a sixth Stormcloak had appeared on the far side of the cavern and was aiming a bow in their direction. Elisif summoned up her courage and ran forward, past the dying man, to join her companions.

She stood shoulder to shoulder with them and fought. "True Nords never back down!" she yelled, as she blocked and stabbed.

"The Reach belongs to the Forsworn!" Kaie cried, severing an opponent's hand with one sword and then ramming her other sword into his chest.

"For the Empire and the true High Queen!" Hadvar joined in. He bashed a Stormcloak in the face with his shield and stabbed as the man reeled. Then an arrow from across the cave pierced his right shoulder and his sword fell from his hand. He staggered back with his arm hanging limp.

Elisif found herself in front of Hadvar, fighting at close quarters with a woman warrior who matched her for height, and somehow managed to hold her own. Kaie's wolf had vanished, either cut down or else gone when the spell expired, and it was Kaie and Elisif against two Stormcloaks. The archer had no clear shot at them but loosed another shaft at Hadvar; he caught it on his shield.

Kaie slew the man who faced her and aimed a slash at Elisif's foe. The woman dodged but, in the process, left herself open to Elisif. Without conscious thought Elisif thrust, and thrust again, and the Stormcloak fell bleeding to the ground.

And an arrow streaked through the air and pierced through Elisif's upper left arm above the rim of her shield. She cried out in shock and pain but, somehow, kept hold of her sword. The injured Stormcloak woman struggled up to her knees and raised her sword to retaliate. Elisif clenched her teeth against the pain and, with her shield-arm useless, brought her Orcish sword around to block the woman's thrust and sweep the blade aside. Then Elisif chopped down at the Stormcloak's head, cleaving through her skull, at the same instant as Kaie stabbed the woman in the neck.

The bowman loosed again, just as Kaie was moving to dispose of Elisif's foe, and the arrow missed by inches. Then Kaie went forward at a run, dodging from side to side as she went, dropping her left-hand sword and launching a jet of magical flame at the archer. It lasted only a few seconds but it was enough to make him leap out of the way and prevent him loosing another shaft. Before he could draw his bow again Kaie had reached him, her sword poised, and even as he tossed his bow aside and grabbed for his sword she closed and slashed her blade across his throat.

That was the end of the fight. Elisif sank to her knees, panting, feeling weak and ill with reaction and the pain of her wound. Yet she also felt proud. She had acquitted herself well, she knew; perhaps she might have had an advantage due to the enemy wanting to take her alive, at least at the start of the fight, but the second opponent had been trying to kill her. And Hadvar had called her 'the true High Queen'. Yes, that was the official position of the Legion, but he'd shouted it as if he really meant it. That sent a warm glow through her.

Kaie's war-cry was more problematic. She really was one of the Forsworn. A member of a cult of savage rebels, probably Daedra-worshippers, who wanted to claim one of Skyrim's holds for themselves. And yet… she was an enemy of Ulfric and the Stormcloaks, she had protected Elisif at the risk of her own life, and she was brave and honorable. Elisif decided that she could overlook Kaie's other allegiances and treat her as a true comrade… perhaps even a friend.

And now she was coming to tend to Elisif's wound. Kaie had retrieved the sword she had cast aside and she sheathed both swords as she approached Elisif and bent over her. "I'll need to get that arrow out, before a potion will work," Kaie said. "You'd better bite on something. This will hurt."

"I think Hadvar's wound is worse," Elisif said. "See to him first." She wanted her own hurts mended as soon as possible, so that the pain would stop, but a worthy ruler would put their subjects' needs before their own. That was what she had read, anyway. She was rewarded with another of Kaie's flashing smiles.

"No, girl, I can wait," Hadvar put in. "It is my duty to keep Jarl Elisif – the future High Queen – from harm. She must come first."

Elisif wasn't going to argue with him. Kaie proffered a strip of leather, such as smiths used for the bindings of armor and the grips of daggers, and Elisif took it and put it between her teeth. Kaie cast another spell, this time conjuring up a ball of light that hovered over her head, and snapped off the arrow-head. "Bite down now," she ordered, as she took hold of the shaft.

Elisif clenched her teeth on the leather and just managed to hold herself back from screaming as Kaie pulled the arrow free. Blood soaked into Elisif's sleeve as she spat out the leather strip, accepted a potion vial from Kaie, and gulped it down.

"It's not quite healed," Kaie said, handing over another bottle. "I do not know the 'Healing Hands' spell, alas, although I do know the spells to heal myself." Once more she flashed a smile. "A pity, perhaps, that it was not me who was struck by the arrow."

"If it had been you, I might be dead now," Elisif said. "I couldn't have dealt with the archer the way you did." She drank the potion and felt the last of the pain fade away to nothing. "Thank you."

Extracting the arrow from Hadvar's shoulder was a more complicated procedure, and no doubt was more painful, but within a couple of minutes it was done and, free of the arrow, Hadvar drank two healing potions. He flexed his arm. "That's better," he said. "We should retrieve that bow for ourselves."

"That dead foe has one slung on his back," Kaie said, indicating the man who had been Elisif's first opponent.

"I'll get it," Elisif volunteered, wanting to do her fair share in the group. She went to the body and maneuvered it, with some effort, until she could get at the bow and the quiver. The smell coming from the body sickened her; there were aspects of violent death that the bards never mentioned. She managed to suppress the urge to vomit and completed the task.

Kaie gathered up the bow that had wounded Elisif and Hadvar. One of the other bodies proved to have a slung bow, too, and the three had a bow each when they found an exit from the cave and made their way onward.

Still they had not reached the outside world, only another cave, and this one was inhabited by frostbite spiders. The bows came in handy, allowing them to strike down the creatures from a distance, although Elisif played little part. She did, rather to her surprise and pride, manage to score one hit and finish off a spider already wounded by Hadvar.

By now Elisif was getting heartily sick of the tunnels and caverns beneath the keep and longed to be out. She was disappointed when, beyond the spider cave, they emerged only into yet another cavern. Larger than the previous two, with more light getting in from outside, and containing another stream, or perhaps the same one, running in a gully across the cave until it disappeared into a hole and plunged into unknown depths.

"Hold up!" Hadvar warned, holding up a hand. "There's a bear up ahead. See her?"

Elisif saw the bear, lying apparently asleep, and wondered how Hadvar could have determined the animal's gender at a distance.

"I'd rather we didn't tangle with her right now," Hadvar went on. "We might be able to sneak by. Just take it easy, and watch where you step."

"I will be ready in case we wake her," Kaie added, "but, as Hadvar says, there is no point in risking a fight in which we might be injured when it is unnecessary."

Elisif could see the sense in that and, doing her best to tread quietly, followed Hadvar through the cave whilst giving the bear a wide berth. Kaie came behind, so silently that Elisif wouldn't have known she was there, and the bear continued to slumber as they passed its resting place and entered a passage on the far side of the cavern.

And, at long last, they emerged into the open air.

"Oh, thank the Divines," Elisif exclaimed, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the sunlight, and she strode forward.

"Wait!" Hadvar urged.

"Take cover!" Kaie hissed.

Elisif joined the others in crouching behind rocks as the dragon passed overhead, low enough that they could hear the sound of its wing-beats, but gaining height rapidly. It headed off toward what Elisif guessed to be a northerly direction, based on the position of the sun, climbing all the time until eventually it was lost to sight.

"It has gone," Hadvar said, "but we had better get away from here."

"We have to get back to Helgen," Elisif said. "There may be injured people there who need help. And I need to find out if General Tullius escaped."

"With respect, Jarl Elisif, I think that would be unwise," Hadvar said. "There could well be more Stormcloaks in what remains of the town. More likely than legionaries, I would say, for they fought the dragon whereas the Stormcloaks sought only shelter and escape. And we have only two healing potions remaining. The help we could offer is too limited to be worth the risk."

"Ulfric _y Cachwr_ might be there still," Kaie said. "I do not think we could prevail against him, with the weapons we have against the power of his Voice, and he might take you captive. That would be a bad thing. You are too important to risk. We should get you to a place of safety."

"I suppose you are right," Elisif conceded, reluctantly. She didn't want them to start treating her as if she was a fragile flower that needed protecting, as Bolgeir had done, and as her steward Falk Firebeard tended to do. "So where do we go?" Where, indeed, would there be a true place of safety from a dragon who had laid waste to a fortified town, defended by a large contingent of legionaries, seemingly immune to everything they had tried against it?

"Riverwood is not far from here," Hadvar said. "My uncle is the blacksmith there. I'm sure he could help us out with some supplies, perhaps a better weapon or two, some armor for Kaie that isn't Legion equipment. Enough to get us to Whiterun, at least, and from there we can get a carriage back to Solitude."

"That seems to be the best course," Elisif agreed. "Lead on."

In other circumstances the walk toward Riverwood might have been a pleasant stroll. The sun shone brightly and, as they walked downhill, they soon left the area where snow lay on the ground and came to where grass and flowers lined their path. Before long they joined the road from Helgen to Riverwood and followed it, keeping alert for any Stormcloaks who might be following the same route, until they neared the White River.

At a bend in the road Elisif saw a group of three standing stones, ten feet or more in height, smoothly rounded and pierced through with head-sized holes so that they rather resembled giant needles stuck into the ground.

"The Guardian Stones," Hadvar said. "The Mage, the Thief, and the Warrior. They say that if one favored by the gods touches a stone they will receive a blessing that will make them more skilled in their chosen field. I tried touching the Warrior Stone myself, once, but I didn't notice any difference."

Kaie stared at the stones. "Surely this cannot be the power that the Matriarch promised would be mine," she mused. "I have touched the Lover Stone near Markarth, and felt its benefits, and I doubt that one of these stones would give me more. And she could have sent me directly here, rather than to Deepwater Crossing. I will keep what I have and pass these stones by." She turned her gaze to Elisif. "But you, my Lady, should avail yourself of this opportunity."

Elisif stepped onto the flagstones between the standing stones and headed for the one bearing the symbol of the Warrior. She doubted that she would count as 'favored by the gods', and fully expected nothing to happen, but she had nothing to lose other than a few seconds of her time and stretched out her hand to touch the megalith.

And it responded. The engravings on the stone lit up with lines of bluish light, forming the outline of the constellation of the Warrior, and a bright mage-light filled the hole in the upper part of the stone. A beam of light shone directly on Elisif and she felt suddenly… reenergized. Her fatigue eased. She didn't feel as if she had become a mighty warrior instantly but she did feel a little more courageous, a little more confident, and as if she had gained a slightly greater understanding of the art of combat. The lights on the Warrior Stone faded away but the feeling remained.

"That is what happened when I touched the Lover Stone," Kaie said. "The gods recognize your worth… as do I."

"I wouldn't have thought I'd done enough to prove myself worthy," Elisif said. "My Thanes don't seem to regard me as more than a figurehead."

"Then you need new Thanes," Kaie said. "If my allegiance was not pledged to… another I would be proud to serve you."

"And I would be proud to have you in my service," Elisif said.

"You fought valiantly, even when you were wounded," Hadvar said. "I shall spread the word through the Legion that we are fighting for a true warrior queen."

"Thank you, Hadvar," Elisif said. He was, she thought, exaggerating considerably. She didn't regard herself as even close to being worthy of that appellation. But perhaps, if she found someone to train her and worked hard, one day she could be a warrior queen in truth. As they left the Guardian Stones, and continued along the road, she resolved to try.


	2. Walk Through the Fire

**Chapter Two: Walk Through the Fire**

Elisif looked about her almost in disbelief as they walked in through what passed as the gate into Riverwood; there was a wall, topped by a walkway for guards, but it extended for only a short distance to each side of the road and the gateway was an open arch with no gate. It would be no obstacle at all to any attacking force, even one on foot, let alone a dragon. Beyond the gateway the village was a scene of quiet tranquility that was in complete contrast to the chaos and destruction of Helgen. Elisif felt almost as if she was walking into a different world.

The smithy was right at the edge of the village, just past the gateway, and Elisif could hear the clang of metal on metal as the smith worked at his anvil. Hadvar called out to the smith.

"Uncle Alvor! Hello!"

The smith stood up. He had the solid build that would be expected in a smith and wore a sturdy leather apron. "Hadvar?" he exclaimed, laying down the metal on which he had been working. "What are you doing here? Are you on leave from… Shor's bones, what happened to you, boy? Are you in some kind of trouble?"

"Keep your voice down, Uncle, please," Hadvar requested. "I'm fine, but we should go inside to talk."

"What's going on? And who are these?"

"Friends," Hadvar said. "Come on, I'll explain everything, but we need to go inside."

"Okay, okay," Alvor agreed, "come inside, then. Sigrid will get you a bite to eat and you can tell me all about it." He led the way into the house that adjoined the smithy and, once inside, called out to someone out of sight. "Sigrid! We have company!"

A woman, good-looking and probably around thirty, came up some steps from a lower floor and looked at them with some surprise showing on her face. "Hadvar? What are you doing here? But you three must be hungry. Sit down and I'll get you something to eat." She went to the cooking pot that hung over the fire. A child, a girl of perhaps nine or ten, came up the steps and joined her.

"Now then, boy, what's the big mystery?" Alvor said, as Elisif took a seat at the table and then Hadvar and Kaie followed suit. "What are you doing here, looking like you lost an argument with a cave bear, and with a lady who looks like a noble?"

"This is Jarl Elisif of Solitude, the rightful High Queen," Hadvar told him.

"Oh!" Sigrid put her hand to her mouth. "Jarl Elisif! I only have a simple stew, nothing suitable for a Jarl. I'm sorry."

"Stew would be delightful," Elisif said. Now that the subject had been raised she realized that she was extremely hungry. "We turned up unexpectedly and it would be stupid and arrogant of me to expect a banquet." Although, she thought, she wouldn't put it past Jarl Siddgeir of Falkreath to expect exactly that and to throw a tantrum if he didn't get one.

Hadvar related the events of the attack on Helgen, and their escape, as Sigrid dished out the stew and they began to eat.

"A dragon?" Alvor exclaimed. "That's… hard to believe." He looked at Elisif. "Is that what really happened?"

"It is," Elisif confirmed. "I thought that dragons died out centuries ago, but there it was, huge and flying and breathing fire. It killed my Housecarl and many legionaries."

"I don't know if General Tullius made it out," Hadvar said. "I need to get back to Solitude, with the Jarl, as soon as I can. I thought you could help us out. Food, and supplies. Do you have any armor that would fit Kaie here?"

"I don't keep any Imperial armor in stock," Alvor said, "and her armor looks to be in better condition than yours. There's a hole in your shoulder-guard, and blood-stains around it, and it must have been a nasty wound. Give me a half-hour and I can make it as good as new."

"Kaie… isn't in the Legion," Hadvar explained. "She's wearing that armor because it's all that we could find for her… other than taking equipment from the bodies of fallen Stormcloaks, which might lead to dangerous misunderstandings. But continuing to wear Legion armor might be just as bad."

"Hmm." Alvor pursed his lips. "She is smaller than most people who buy armor from me, but I should be able to come up with something. There is something that I would ask in return. The Jarl needs to be told that there is a dragon on the loose. Riverwood is defenseless. Get word to Jarl Balgruuf to send whatever soldiers he can."

"Jarl Balgruuf?" Elisif queried. "Then Riverwood is in Whiterun Hold? I had thought we were still in Falkreath Hold."

"No, my lady, we are on the Whiterun side of the Hold boundary," Alvor said, "although only by a short distance."

Elisif mentally scolded herself for her error and resolved to learn the geography of Skyrim more thoroughly. She might need to know such things in detail if she was to be High Queen. "We are going to Whiterun anyway," she said, "and of course I will inform Balgruuf."

"Are you really a Jarl?" the little girl asked her. "You're very pretty but your clothes are dirty."

"Dorthe! That was rude," Sigrid scolded.

"It's hard to keep clean when you're being chased by a dragon, and having to fight past Stormcloaks," Elisif explained.

"Did the dragon have great big teeth?" the girl asked.

Elisif shuddered at the memory. "It did," she confirmed. "Scales, and teeth, and wings like a bat. And it breathed fire."

"That's not dirt on your gown, Jarl Elisif," Sigrid observed. "It's blood. Are you wounded?"

"It's not all mine," Elisif told her, feeling a little rush of pride. "I've taken some healing potions and I'm fine now. But I'd like to use your privy, and then wash up, before we head for Whiterun." She was tired, and would have liked to stay a night and rest before travelling on, but Alvor was right that Jarl Balgruuf needed to know about the dragon attack as soon as possible.

"Of course," Sigrid said. "I'll show you where the privy is, and get some water heated."

Less than an hour later Elisif and her two companions set off for Whiterun. It was early evening by this time but, to Elisif, it felt as if it should be much later. It had been a very long, hard, day. Kaie now wore a set of studded leather armor, and boots the right size for her feet, and Elisif bore a scabbard into which the Orcish sword fitted snugly. She still wore no armor but she doubted if that would matter on the relatively short walk to Whiterun.

The walk was, indeed, untroubled. At one point a wolf bared its teeth at them, from a vantage point overlooking the road, but it didn't dare to attack a group of three and ran off as soon as Kaie raised her bow. That was the nearest thing to a threat they encountered. The road ran downhill, parallel to the river, and then joined the main road to Whiterun as it turned away from the river and went through the city's farmlands. To one side of the road lay Honningbrew Meadery, where Elisif's favorite mead was made, and to the other side a stream separated them from the rocky hill on which the walled city stood. The sun had set, and daylight given way to twilight, by the time they reached the city gates.

The area in front of the gates was illuminated by a pair of flaming braziers. Two guards stood beside them. "Halt!" one ordered. "The Jarl has ordered the city closed, after the reports that there are dragons about. Only residents, and those with official business, may enter."

Elisif hadn't expected word of the dragon to reach Whiterun ahead of her but it didn't surprise her greatly. The dragon had been heading in that general direction and would have been visible for a considerable distance. At least it hadn't attacked the city.

"This is official business," she said. "I am Jarl Elisif of Solitude and I must speak with Jarl Balgruuf urgently."

"Hah! Nice try," said one of the guards. "You can stay out…"

"You're an idiot, Kunthar," the other guard interrupted him. "That really is Jarl Elisif. We'll let you in right away, my lady."

"Oh!" exclaimed the other guard. "I didn't know. Forgive me, Jarl Elisif."

"Of course," she said. "I don't blame you for following your orders." Although, she thought, following orders without question could be a bad thing if the orders were ill-considered or evil. She pondered the problem of acting according to your conscience, versus obedience to lawful authority, as they entered the city and walked along the main street. Glows of light through windows revealed that most dwellings had their lanterns lit, the guards patrolling the streets bore burning torches to light their way, and Elisif's thoughts turned back to dragons.

Elisif had visited Whiterun several times previously, most recently shortly after Torygg's accession to the High Kingship, but never before had she looked at it with the question of flammability uppermost in her mind. This time she observed, to her relief, that the majority of the buildings had tiled or shingled roofs; thatched roofs were few and far between. It was by no means fireproof, as wooden support beams were all too prevalent, but at least the houses wouldn't go up like torches at a single pass from the dragon. The most vulnerable place seemed to be Jorrvaskr, the headquarters of the Companions, which had the inverted hull of a wooden ship serving as its roof. Still, if anyone could fight off the dragon, it would be the elite warriors of the Companions. Elisif just hoped the question wouldn't arise.

Dragonsreach was a very impressive structure but it registered on Elisif, for the first time, that the front section of the building was made of wood. At least the timbers were thick, and wouldn't be easy to ignite, and the rear half of the building was constructed of stone. The guard at the front door opened it for Elisif without even a challenge, presumably having recognized her, and the small party entered the building and walked up the great hall toward the Jarl's court.

Jarl Balgruuf's Dunmer Housecarl, Irileth, hastened to meet them and drew her sword as she approached. "What's the meaning of this interruption?" she snapped "Jarl Balgruuf is not… Jarl Elisif? Forgive me, I did not recognize you at first." She sheathed her sword. "Come with me to the Jarl. And your companions had better come too."

Jarl Balgruuf was sitting on his throne, under the head of Numinex the Dragon mounted on the wall, talking to his steward. When he saw Elisif he came to his feet and strode forward to meet her. "Elisif? What are you doing here?" he asked. "And bearing a sword and shield? Where's your Housecarl?"

"Bolgeir is dead," Elisif answered. "The dragon killed him at Helgen."

"What? You were there?" Balgruuf stepped closer. "Your gown is torn and that looks like blood around the tear. Were you wounded? Are you all right?"

"I took an arrow in the arm as we were fighting some Stormcloaks," Elisif said, "but it's been healed. I'm fine now."

"You… fought Stormcloaks?" Balgruuf's eyebrows climbed almost to his hair-line.

"I didn't have a choice," Elisif told him. "Ulfric wanted to take me as a hostage. I wasn't going to let him. Luckily I wasn't alone." Balgruuf's gaze went to Elisif's two companions. "Hadvar of the Legion," Elisif said, "and Kaie of the Reach. Without them I would be a captive, or dead."

"Then you deserve praise, and my thanks," Balgruuf said. "I shall find both of you some suitable reward. First, though, I want a full account of what happened. I imagine all of you could use a meal. Dine with me, and tell your tale."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

"After that we made our way to Riverwood," Elisif related, nearing the end of her account. "Hadvar's uncle Alvor is the smith there. He fed us, and provided some armor for Kaie, and then asked us to pass a request on to you. He's worried about the dragon and asks that you send some guards to Riverwood. They couldn't protect the place, not really, not against the dragon. I saw what it did to the Legion forces in Helgen. But it would make the people of Riverwood feel much safer and I think that's worthwhile."

"Hmm," said Irileth. "They can, at least, get the townspeople to safety if the town is attacked. My lord, I should arrange for a detachment to be ready to leave at first light."

"The Jarl of Falkreath will view that as a provocation!" the Steward, Proventus, protested. "He'll assume we're preparing to join Ulfric's side and attack him. I say we should wait."

"Enough!" Balgruuf snapped. "I will not sit idly by while a dragon burns my Hold and slaughters my people. Irileth, you have my permission."

Irileth stood up. "I shall organize it immediately, my lord," she said, and clenched her fist against her chest in salute before turning and hurrying off.

"If you will excuse me, I will return to my duties," Proventus said, somewhat stiffly. "I must instruct the servants to prepare accommodation for our guests."

"Yes, do that, Proventus," said the Jarl. He sat for a moment, toying with his empty mead tankard, as the Steward stood and left the table. "You have changed, Elisif," he said. "Forgive me for saying so, but I used to think you were a little… empty-headed. And then, after Torygg… died, you seemed broken with grief. But now I see you as brave, and resolute, with a core of steel. A warrior, even, one might say."

"I have been through fire," Elisif said, "and it has tempered me. I wouldn't say I'm a warrior, not yet, but I think I could be. I need training, though."

"Hmm," said Balgruuf. "There is a retired mercenary in Whiterun, a frequent visitor to the court, who is a fine teacher of swordplay. Amren, the Redguard. A few lessons from him might benefit you greatly."

"Then I shall avail myself of the opportunity, whilst I am here," Elisif decided. "I need to get back to Solitude but I can delay that for a couple of days, which I hope would be long enough to learn some basic moves that I can practice later. That is, if Hadvar is going straight back to Solitude."

"I am, my lady," Hadvar confirmed. "I must rejoin my unit as soon as possible."

"Then you can let the people of Solitude know that I'm not dead," Elisif said. "I'm sure that, once word of what happens at Helgen reaches Solitude, there will be those who will jump to the conclusion that I have perished. I'd like the truth to be known before rumors spread." Rumors that Erikur would fasten on eagerly, she guessed, and he'd find some way to turn them to his advantage.

"I shall do so," Hadvar said. "I will have to make a report to General Tullius anyway… assuming he was not slain at Helgen. If he was then I will report to Legate Rikke. Normally I would not discuss Legion business with anyone outside the Legion but, if it is your wish, I will make a point of speaking to Corpulus Vinius at the Winking Skeever. He will spread the word through the whole city in no time."

"Do not exaggerate my deeds," Elisif cautioned him. "I defended myself well enough to stay alive, that is all. I don't want to return and have the people looking at me as if I was Queen Freydis returned, only to be horribly disappointed."

"I will report the facts, unadorned," Hadvar said, "as is my duty."

"Thank you," Elisif said. "If Tullius, or Rikke, do not give you a promotion, or at the least a commendation, let me know. It is certain that you deserve one."

"I only did my duty," said Hadvar.

"You did it well, in circumstances that were hardly normal," said Elisif, "and that deserves due recognition."

"I will see what General Tullius says," Hadvar said, "if he still lives, that is."

"That is something I need to find out as soon as possible," Elisif said. "I take it that you have had no news of General Tullius, Balgruuf?"

Balgruuf shook his head. "I had no idea he was anywhere near here," he said. "We heard a rumor, yesterday, that a dragon had been seen near Riften and had destroyed a farm near there. Then, some hours ago, a hunter came to the city and claimed that he had seen a dragon attacking Helgen and that the town was burning. We did not believe him, despite the earlier rumor, until several guards reported seeing a dragon flying past. That was when I ordered the gates closed to strangers."

"A dragon could fly over the walls, Balgruuf," Elisif pointed out, "and strangers arriving might well be survivors of Helgen seeking refuge. There is no point in restricting the entry of people to the city. A better idea would be to take precautions against fire. Buckets for water, and so on."

"A good thought, Elisif," Balgruuf said, "and one that should have occurred to me. I will instruct Proventus accordingly. But I did not order the gates closed merely because a dragon had been sighted. There was another sighting, and one that you will not find welcome news."

"Ulfric Stormcloak," Elisif guessed.

"Indeed so," Balgruuf confirmed. "Shortly after the dragon was sighted, and not long before you arrived here, I received a report from the guards at Whitewatch Tower. They saw Ulfric, accompanied by a dozen or more Stormcloak warriors, passing by on the road that leads to Windhelm. He survived Helgen, as did you, and the strife will continue."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

"You slept late, Jarl Elisif," Kaie said, her tone amused. "Hadvar has already departed for Solitude."

"I would have liked to bid him farewell," Elisif said, "but I said all that needed to be said last night. I hope that there is food left for me to break my fast."

"Jarl Balgruuf keeps an ample table," Kaie said, "and you will not go hungry."

"You have eaten already?" Elisif asked, as she found herself a portion of food.

"Two hours past," Kaie said. "Jarl Balgruuf was awaiting your rising… ah, here he comes now."

The Jarl entered the dining hall, not from his quarters upstairs but from a room off to the side, and he was accompanied by a man in the robes of a wizard as well as, of course, the ever-present Irileth. "Ah, you are up at last, Elisif," Balgruuf greeted her. "I feared you would sleep the day through."

"She had every reason to rest long, Jarl Balgruuf," Kaie retorted, sounding to Elisif almost as if she was scolding the other Jarl. "What she went through yesterday would test the reserves of any."

Balgruuf laughed. "You are a fierce protector, I see, a match perhaps even for my Irileth. I did but jest. Elisif, I'd like to borrow your Housecarl for a special project my court wizard, Farengar, has been conducting for me. We need someone courageous, stealthy, and intrepid and I gather she has all of those qualities."

"My… Housecarl?" Elisif raised her eyebrows. "You mean Kaie? She's not my Housecarl. I'm sure she has all the attributes you seek but you'll have to ask her yourself if you wish her to perform a service for you."

"Oh?" Balgruuf's eyebrows rose to match Elisif's. "I misunderstood. She acts like a Housecarl. I thought you had taken her on to replace Bolgeir Bearclaw."

"I would be more than happy to do so," said Elisif, "but Kaie has… other commitments."

"I will fill the role of Housecarl to Jarl Elisif either until I have seen her safely back to Solitude, or until she finds a replacement for he who fell at Helgen," said Kaie. "I doubt she will need me whilst she is in this city, under your protection, and so I may be willing to assist your wizard with his task, if it will not take too long."

"I'll let him explain," Jarl Balgruuf said. "Farengar, go ahead and fill her in on the details."

"I need someone to fetch something for me," Farengar said, speaking with a noticeable lisp. He was a fairly young man, somewhat surprisingly for a wizard, with remarkably bushy sideburns. "Well, when I say 'fetch', I really mean 'delve into a dangerous ruin in search of an ancient stone tablet that may or may not actually be there'."

"I have done such things before," Kaie said, "for M… mages in my own land. I would guess that this stone has something to do with dragons, am I correct?"

"Ah, no mere brute mercenary, but a thinker… perhaps even a scholar?" Farengar nodded approvingly. "I have been studying dragon lore for some years but, until now, it was only a hobby. I learned of a certain stone tablet said to be housed in Bleak Falls Barrow, a 'Dragonstone', which is a map of dragon burial sites. Go to Bleak Falls Barrow, find this tablet – no doubt in the main chamber – and bring it to me."

"Bleak Falls Barrow? Hadvar pointed that out to us, as we made our way to Riverwood," Elisif said. "It's not far from here. He said it was rumored to be full of draugr."

"That would explain why the wizard did not retrieve this stone long ago," said Kaie.

"You are correct," Farengar confirmed. "Twice I have sent mercenaries there, offering a reward, but one did not return and the other came back and said that what I was offering was too small for the perils involved. She may have had a point but, at the time, I did not feel it worthwhile to increase my offer, as I sought the stone mainly out of idle curiosity. Now… things are different."

"Indeed they are," Elisif agreed. "Well, Kaie, will you do it?"

"I will," Kaie said. "I wonder… is the mercenary who made the previous attempt still around? She may have information that would make the task easier."

"She is," Irileth said. "Her name is Jenassa and you will find her at the Drunken Huntsman inn." She frowned, and her mouth tightened, and then she spoke again. "She is the daughter of my cousin, but she has a long-standing grudge against me, and I disapprove of the lifestyle she has chosen. We… do not get on. But if she is willing to accompany you to the barrow you should take her. It would be hard to find a more competent helper."

Elisif wondered why, if Jenassa was so skilled, Farengar didn't just go back to her with an offer of a greater reward this time. Perhaps his original refusal had offended Jenassa, causing him to doubt that she would work for him again, or perhaps it was something to do with the bad blood between her and Irileth.

"I shall seek her out, then," Kaie said. She turned to Elisif. "I shall go at once, for the sooner I set off the sooner I shall return. I would expect to be back before you depart for Solitude."

"If you are not, I shall provide a Housecarl for Elisif," Balgruuf said. "I have one in mind. A young woman named Lydia, who has been training to be a Housecarl for a while now. I think she would suit you well."

Elisif considered the offer. There would be advantages to having a woman Housecarl, certainly, and she would have taken on Jordis the Sword-Maiden as her own Housecarl, after Torygg's death, if she hadn't felt that would have been unfair to loyal Bolgeir. "Thank you, Balgruuf, that's an excellent idea," she said. "Of course, I'll need to meet her before I make a decision."

"I'll introduce you," Balgruuf said. He turned to Kaie. "You'll need some money to hire Jenassa. This should be ample," he said, handing over a coin purse. "If there's any left over, keep it, or spend it on better equipment."

"Thank you, Jarl Balgruuf," Kaie said. "Wizard Farengar, how will I recognize this 'Dragonstone'?"

"My references indicate that it is a stone slab about the same size as a spell tome," Farengar said. "It should have a map of Skyrim carved, or etched, into it. There will be sites marked, perhaps with circles, stars, or crosses, showing where the dragons that fell in the Dragon Wars were buried."

Elisif couldn't see the relevance of this to the present situation, at first, and then it occurred to her that perhaps Farengar thought that studying dead dragons would provide clues on how to kill the one currently ravaging Skyrim. That seemed logical.

"I will find it, then," Kaie said. She dipped her head toward Elisif. "Farewell for now, Elisif _Frenhines_ ," she said, and set off toward the exit.

"I wonder what that means?" Elisif wondered, as the door closed behind Kaie.

"I might be able to find out, Jarl Elisif," Farengar volunteered. "There is a dictionary of the Reachman language as an appendix to my copy of _Madmen of the Reach_. I will look the word up for you, if you wish."

"I would appreciate that," Elisif said. "I'd like to read _Madmen of the Reach_ again, anyway. I remember very little of it."

"Then I shall fetch it," Farengar said, and he walked off, toward his study, muttering 'Ren-heeness' under his breath.

"You suspect, as do I, that Kaie is a member of the Forsworn," Balgruuf said. "Are you quite certain that placing so much trust in her is wise?"

"I owe her my life, Balgruuf," Elisif pointed out. "If the contributions of each of us to our escape from Helgen were divided into ten parts, it would be six to Kaie, three to Hadvar, and one to me. If not for Kaie I'd be dead, or a prisoner of Ulfric Stormcloak, and, frankly, I'm not sure which would be worse. She's no ordinary Forsworn, I'm sure of that. She has some position of authority with them. The equivalent of a Thane, I would guess, or a Housecarl to one of their leaders at the least. Once this war is over, if the Moot confirms me as High Queen, I will try and use that to negotiate some kind of settlement with the Forsworn."

"Hmm," said Balgruuf. "I'm not sure any kind of settlement with those savages is possible… but I will concede that Kaie has impressed me. Anything like that is a long way off, though. Ulfric is too formidable. And I'm afraid that I'm still not willing to align Whiterun with your cause, even though you, also, have impressed me. The people of the Hold are too divided on the issue, with the Gray-Manes supporting the Stormcloaks and the Battle-Borns supporting the Empire, and for me to take a side would risk the stand-off escalating into open conflict. Ulfric would be quick to take advantage of that, I am sure, and I will not give him the chance. As long as we are neutral he will not move against us and I will, therefore, remain unaligned with either side."

Elisif sighed. "I am disappointed, but I understand," she said. "I suppose the dragon makes things even more difficult. If you change your mind…"

"Then I will let you know," Balgruuf said. "I promise you this; I shall not join Ulfric's side, whatever happens."

"That will have to do," Elisif said, and then she saw Farengar returning with a book in his hands.

"I found it, Jarl Elisif," Farengar said. " _Brenhines_ , or _Frenhines_ … means 'Queen'."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

"That sword is not right for you," Amren said. He was a Redguard, dark brown of skin, not a big man but lean and well-muscled. "It's a fine sword for attacking but the design is badly flawed when it comes to defense." He directed Elisif's attention to the guard. "See here. If your opponent's blade slides along the back of yours there is nothing to stop it from biting into your hand. You would need to wear armored gauntlets and that, I think, would slow you down too much for it to be viable."

Elisif looked at the Orcish sword and could see what Amren meant. The guard shielded her fingers but left the rest of her hand unprotected. This wouldn't have mattered to Bolgeir, who had always worn steel plate gauntlets, but was a distinct drawback for her. "So, what should I use?" she asked.

"A regular pattern steel sword would be best, at least at first," Amren said. "You can get one from Adrianne Avenicci at Warmaiden's. Keep the Orcish sword, though, for it would serve you well against wild beasts. We will use wooden practice swords for this training session." He handed her one of the replica weapons. "There are eight basic guard positions, eight defenses, and eight attacks. The attacks and defenses all have multiple variations, depending on circumstances, but you need a good grounding in the basics before you can improvise. I'll show you a couple of each, to start with, and see how you get on. Now, place your feet like _this_ , and put your sword into _this_ position…"

Elisif adopted the stance. She was wearing a set of Studded Armor of the Major Squire, a gift from Jarl Balgruuf, and the enchantment on the armor made moving in it seem as natural to her as if she was dressed in her normal clothes; easier, in fact, as the thick fabric of the full-length gown had hampered her leg movements. Once satisfied with her foot placement she held out her sword in a careful replication of the way Amren was holding his weapon.

He studied her for a moment and then smiled. "Very good, Jarl Elisif," he said. "Now, the next guard position."

Amren ran her through all eight of the guards, all of the defenses, and all of the attacks. At first he was smiling but, as the lesson progressed, he began to frown. After she had successfully emulated his demonstration of the final attack he lowered his sword.

"I am sorry, Jarl Elisif," he said. "There must have been some kind of mistake. I apologize for wasting your time."

Elisif gulped. "What's wrong?" she asked, her voice trembling slightly. "I thought I was getting them right."

"Well, yes," said Amren, "but it's obvious that you've advanced beyond that stage. Jarl Balgruuf gave me the impression that you were an absolute beginner."

"But I am!" Elisif insisted. "I fought some Stormcloaks at Helgen but I had no idea what I was doing. I just tried my best to hit them and stop them hitting me. I didn't know anything about guards, defenses, or attacks."

"Really?" Amren's eyebrows soared. "But you are performing them perfectly. I haven't had to correct your stance or positioning even once. That's something I've never encountered before. Even my most gifted students have needed at least a little correction."

"Oh!" Elisif's mouth dropped open. "I had no idea." A thought occurred to her. "Perhaps it's something to do with the Warrior Stone," she suggested.

Amren's face cleared. "You touched the Warrior Stone? And it gave you a blessing?" he said. "It is said that it grants the ability to learn the skills of a warrior much more quickly than is normal. I was already an experienced fighter when I visited the Stone, and so I have no personal knowledge of how it affects a novice, but it would account for your rapid progress." He directed his gaze at her sword hand. "Although you must have had at least a little training. You grip the sword in the correct fashion, not holding it too tightly as is the usual habit of beginners, and I didn't need to show you that as you were doing it right from the start."

"Kaie showed me," Elisif said, "after my sword came out of my hand when I hit a Stormcloak in the face."

"Good for you," Amren said, grinning. Elisif wasn't surprised that he approved; the Stormcloaks insistence that 'Skyrim belongs to the Nords' wasn't going to go down well with a Redguard who, going by his accent, had lived in Skyrim for many years. "Well, as you are a fast learner, we should be able to cover far more today that I had expected. Next we shall look at the riposte; converting a parry into an immediate attack."

Two hours later Elisif lowered her sword, panting, her arms aching and weary. She wasn't sure whether she felt proud, as she knew she had learnt the lessons well, or humbled; Amren had just 'killed' her six times in fifteen minutes of sparring and she hadn't managed to touch him in a significant area even once.

"I think that's enough for today, Jarl Elisif," Amren said. "You are tiring and to continue might do more harm than good. We have made remarkable progress. It takes most pupils a month to reach the stage you have reached in just a couple of hours."

"I didn't manage to get anywhere against you in sparring, though," Elisif said. "It was a little… discouraging."

"You should not be discouraged," Amren told her. "There are only a handful of warriors in the city, barring of course the Companions, who can best me in combat. You performed very creditably."

"Thank you," Elisif said, feeling her cheeks warm as she blushed slightly. "If so, it is due to your excellent instruction."

"You are too kind, Jarl Elisif," Amren said. "You will need to practice what you have learned, of course, with a real sword so that you are accustomed to the weight and balance. Perhaps, after you've had a chance to rest and dine, an hour or two at the training dummies." He gestured in the direction of the wood and straw figures that were set up around the training area.

Elisif looked that way and saw that the guards, who should have been engaging in practice combat themselves, instead were all standing and staring. At her.

Her blush intensified. She was tempted, at least for a moment, to scuttle away to somewhere private. Then something between annoyance and pride took over. She strode over to the nearest dummy, drew the Orcish sword, and delivered attacks three, five, and eight in rapid succession.

"Like this?" she called to Amren.

"Perhaps with a little less… fervor," Amren answered, as one of the dummy's wooden arms clattered on the floor and straw spilt from the ruined head and torso. "But, yes, that's the general idea."

Elisif sheathed the sword, feeling a twinge of pain in her tired arm muscles, and stepped away from the dummy. "I'll take a break for now," she said, "as you suggest."

"And I had better return home," Amren said. "If you wish another lesson tomorrow, Jarl Balgruuf will know where to find me."

Elisif followed him out of the training area of the Dragonsreach Porch, returning to the main part of the castle, and as she left she overheard one of the guards speaking to his fellows.

"Jarl Elisif is a true Nord," he said, "and no-one can say…"

The door swung shut behind Elisif, cutting off the rest of his words, but she'd heard enough. She continued on, down the stairs to Balgruuf's hall, feeling as if she was ten feet tall.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

"Elisif, this is Lydia," Balgruuf said. The young woman beside him was a little shorter than Elisif but broader across the shoulders. She wore steel armor, providing her with significantly more protection than Elisif's studded leather, but it would be heavier and more restrictive. A steel shield was strapped to her left arm and a steel sword hung at her side.

"I am honored to serve you, Jarl Elisif," Lydia said. She wore no helmet and her mid-length dark hair hung down around her moderately pretty face. "I will be your sword and your shield as long as you need me. Here in Whiterun, on your journey back to Solitude, and in your own city."

"Uh, welcome to my service," Elisif said. "I have no doubt you will do well." Balgruuf would, she was sure, have selected someone competent. Only time would tell if she'd find Lydia compatible in other respects. At least now she would have an escort to Solitude, even if Kaie chose not to accompany her, or did not come back from Bleak Falls Barrow. Elisif didn't expect the deadly Forsworn girl to fail in her mission but had to accept that it was a possibility. She wondered how Kaie was getting on and how soon she would return.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

"You do not see the blue glowing symbol?" Kaie pointed at the curved wall at one side of the chamber. "I am not altogether surprised. None of my people, save for me, can see them. Even Drascua could not see the one at Dead Crone Rock and she is a mage of great power."

"Whereas I have all the magical power of a mudcrab," Jenassa said. "What does it do?"

Kaie shrugged. "Absolutely nothing, as far as I have been able to discover," she said. "When I go closer it will disappear and I will learn a word in a strange language. Saying the word does… nothing. I have found four, so far, and putting the words together does nothing and makes no sense as a sentence. Perhaps there are many of them and if I find them all they will form a spell, or a riddle that will lead me to treasure if I solve it, or something else of value. Or perhaps they will remain useless."

"Or it might open this fetching sarcophagus," Jenassa suggested, giving the coffin in question a thump with the steel warhammer she had taken from a dead draugr. The sarcophagus had, thus far, resisted all their attempts to force it open. "If the Dragonstone is not here I know not where it might be. We have looked everywhere else."

"True," said Kaie, "but no doubt there will be a draugr within, I suspect more formidable than those we have yet faced. Prepare yourself."

Jenassa laid down the warhammer and drew her twin swords. "Ready, my patron," she said.

Kaie had an arrow nocked as she walked toward the mysterious symbol, ready to turn and loose a shaft if she heard any noise from the sarcophagus, but a sound of chanting, seeming to come from the glowing sigil, grew louder and louder until it would have drowned out any such warning noise. Then the symbol glowed almost blindingly bright and Kaie could read it as 'FUS', which she could tell meant 'Force' in some forgotten tongue, and then the runic lettering faded until the light had gone. Now it was normal engraving, matching the rest of the writing carved into the wall, and the chanting died away into silence.

Kaie turned and took two steps back toward Jenassa. And, as they had anticipated, the lid of the sarcophagus burst open and an armored draugr arose from within.

Jenassa was ready. The Dunmer mercenary thrust her swords into the undead flesh. If her target had been a living man… that status would have come to an immediate end. The draugr ignored the wounds, rose to its feet, and turned on Jenassa. Kaie put an arrow into the center of its back and it took no notice. It opened its mouth and Shouted at Jenassa.

"FUS!" A wave of force struck Jenassa and sent her stumbling back, leaving one of her swords stuck deep into the draugr between neck and shoulder, until she lost her footing and sprawled on her back. The draugr drew an axe, the ancient and brittle leather of the belt loops snapping and crumbling as the weapon came free, and advanced to the attack.

Kaie loosed another arrow and then ran forward, readying a Flames spell in her right hand, and sent a jet of fire at the draugr's back. It growled, turned, and shambled toward her with the axe raised. Kaie dropped her bow, as arrows seemed to have little effect upon this _meirw byw_ , and ran to meet it. Her hands crossed and she drew both of her swords.

The axe swung and she swayed aside, evading the blow only by fractions of an inch, the blade passing so close to her that she could feel the chill from its enchantment. Her retaliatory strikes were more accurate, as the shambling draugr was unable to dodge, and her left-hand sword bit into its right shoulder. Her right-hand blade drove into its abdomen, under the rim of its shield, and then she ripped it across to maximize the damage.

"FUS!" The draugr Shouted again, this time at Kaie, and she was knocked back by the pulse of energy. She lost her grip on her left-hand sword and it remained wedged in the draugr's shoulder close to Jenassa's blade. Unlike Jenassa Kaie stayed on her feet. The draugr tried to raise its axe again but the sword in its joint brought the motion to a grinding halt. The undead being brought up its shield arm and, somewhat awkwardly, tried to pull out the sword. Kaie seized the opportunity to run in and strike while it could not defend itself effectively. Simultaneously Jenassa, who had regained her feet, attacked from behind and slashed her remaining blade across the back of the draugr's legs. It went down and both women hacked at it until it lay still and inert.

"The word the creature shouted, that struck us as if it was a physical blow, was the same word that I saw glowing upon the wall," Kaie said, as she retrieved the swords from the corpse. "I wonder…" She handed Jenassa's sword back to the mercenary, used her own sword to hack off the draugr's head, and placed the grisly trophy on top of the now empty sarcophagus. "Fus!" The skull didn't move even a fraction of an inch.

"It is possible it works only on a living target," Jenassa suggested. "You may test it on me. I suffered no injury when the draugr smote me with it, other than being put at a disadvantage in the combat, and I doubt that your use would do me harm."

"If you are sure, then I will try," said Kaie. "Stand where you will not be hurt if you are knocked from your feet." When Jenassa had found somewhere suitable Kaie shouted again. "Fus!" It didn't even rustle Jenassa's hair.

"The mystery, then, remains unsolved," Kaie said. "Only I can see the words… but I cannot use them. Yet _y meirw byw_ could, and did, use one to smite us with its voice."

"What is a 'mavel bue'?" Jenassa asked. "The context suggests that you mean the draugr, am I right?"

"Indeed so," said Kaie. "I spoke in the old tongue of the Reach, where I am from, and to where I must return after I have completed this mission and seen Elisif _frenhines_ _..._ that is, Elisif Queen... safely to Solitude."

"It is plain to see that you respect Jarl Elisif," said Jenassa. "The talk in Whiterun is that she is weak, even foolish, and a mere puppet of General Tullius and the Empire. You have met her, and the gossips have not, and I will go by your assessment."

"She lacks experience," Kaie said, "but that will come with time. Her instincts are sound, and she is brave, and she has a good heart. I believe she will make a fine High Queen of Skyrim. Ah," she said, reaching into the fallen draugr's sarcophagus, "this, I think, is the Dragonstone."

At the far end of the chamber a flight of stone stairs led to a tunnel connecting to the outside world, avoiding the necessity of retracing their steps through the whole of the barrow, and before long they were standing on the southern slope of a hill. The eastern section of Lake Ilinalta could be seen before them.

"Riverwood is a lot nearer to this place than is Whiterun," Kaie said. "We could not reach Whiterun until well after dark and so, even though I would like to return to Elisif as soon as possible, it might make more sense to go to Riverwood first. The golden claw that we found was stolen from the storekeeper there. I believe he would reward us for its return. We can stay the night in Riverwood and go on to Whiterun in the morning."

"The choice is yours, my patron," said Jenassa. "I am happy to go along with whatever decision you make."

"Riverwood it is, then," said Kaie. "I am sure Farengar and Elisif can wait until tomorrow."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

"I have news that will not be to your liking," Balgruuf told Elisif. "The Khajiit traders have brought word of your death."

"What? My death?" Elisif sat up very straight and her eyes widened. "But... I'm not dead!"

"The people of Solitude think that you are, apparently," Balgruuf said. "I don't know if it is just a mistake, or if Ulfric has spread false rumors for his own purposes, but it appears that outside Whiterun the tale is that you died in Helgen."

"Hadvar will tell them the true facts," Elisif said.

"He might not be believed, if the rumor has become entrenched," Balgruuf said. "I think you'd better get back to Solitude as fast as you can. I know you want to wait for your... friend... Kaie but that may no longer be the wisest course. The journey should be safe enough with Lydia at your side."

"We shall take the carriage first thing in the morning, then," Elisif said, "even if Kaie has not returned. I shall leave a letter for her."

"I will pass it on to her, and if she brings back the Dragonstone for Farengar I shall ensure that she is well rewarded," Balgruuf promised. "Give me the letter when we break our fast in the morning."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

The seats of the carriage were bare wood and Elisif expected that her backside would be sore long before they reached Solitude. For the moment, though, she was comfortable enough. The morning was warm, the sun shone brightly, and she felt quite cheerful as the carriage rolled along the road. Lydia didn't seem to be much of a conversationalist; her replies to Elisif's questions were rather brief and stilted, perhaps because she wasn't used to speaking with a Jarl, or perhaps she was just naturally taciturn. Elisif's attention was on the surrounding scenery as the carriage passed by the outpost of Whiterun that was called the Western Watchtower.

A movement caught her eye. A shadow moving across the ground faster than those of the few clouds. The shape of the shadow...

"Dragon!" Elisif shouted.

"Where?" Lydia asked, looking around and up.

Elisif deduced that, to cast the shadow, the dragon must be in the direction in which the sun lay. She looked to the south-east and saw a winged shape swooping down from the mountains. It was heading directly toward the watchtower and, consequently, toward the carriage.

"It's coming this way!" Elisif called. "Driver, stop the carriage! We have to get to the tower."

Instead of reining in the carriage horse the driver urged it to go faster. Elisif leaped down from the moving vehicle, before it could get up speed, but stumbled on landing and fell on her backside.

Lydia jumped down after her, also stumbling, but managed to stay on her feet. She held out a hand to Elisif and helped her to rise. "Are you hurt, my Th... my Jarl?" she asked.

"Only in my pride," Elisif answered. "Make for the tower! We need to be behind stone walls." The two women ran for the watchtower and Elisif called out to the guards around the tower's base. "Dragon! Get inside!"

The guards didn't move. "Dragon? What have you been drinking, woman?" one replied.

Even as he spoke the dragon gave the lie to his words. It swooped past the tower and dived at the fleeing carriage. Flames shot from its mouth and enveloped the vehicle. The driver, his clothes on fire, leapt from the carriage and the horse broke into a mad gallop. The dragon overtook it, snapped with its great jaws, and bit off the horse's head. The dead animal dropped on the spot and the carriage crashed into it, cartwheeled over, and shattered. Then the dragon landed, extended its neck, and snatched up the driver. It raised its head and gulped the body down.

Elisif reached the steps of the tower and the guard who had scoffed at her. She would have liked to make some suitably cutting remark but there was no time for such frivolities. "Get inside!" she ordered. Several guards had been patrolling the outer environs of the little fortress and were too far away to be within easy reach of the tower. Elisif turned and called out to them. "Take cover behind stone! Lie flat if you can't find good cover!"

According to law and custom Elisif had no right to give orders to the Whiterun guard, at least not until a full Moot confirmed her as High Queen of Skyrim, but she was in no mood to respect that technicality. They obeyed her anyway, perhaps because she sounded authorative, and as she rushed into the tower the guards from the steps went with her. Lydia stopped just inside the doorway and readied her bow as the dragon took off and wheeled around in the sky.

"A dragon! It really is a dragon!" one of the guards cried. "I'd heard a dragon had attacked Helgen but I didn't believe it."

"That's not the same dragon," Elisif declared. Once it had landed, and she could get a good idea of its size, it was obvious that this dragon differed significantly from the black monster that had devastated Helgen. Its coloration was different, a light brownish-grey instead of deep black, and its scales and horns were smaller and simpler. Most importantly it was smaller than the first dragon; much smaller. Roughly half the size, Elisif estimated... and that might well mean it was weaker. "I was at Helgen. This dragon is less formidable. I don't know if we can kill it, but perhaps we can drive it off. Or, at least, hold out until help reaches us from Whiterun."

"You are Jarl Elisif?" asked a guard. "Holgunn said you had come to Whiterun, but Ri'saad the Khajiit said you were killed in Helgen."

"I am Elisif." She drew Bolgeir's sword; it stood a better chance of cutting through scales than her new steel sword, and against a dragon the flaw in the design of the guard would be irrelevant. "I survived Helgen... and I have no intention of dying here."


	3. Into the West

**Chapter Three: Into the West**

Elisif kept her eyes on her surroundings as she took a sip from a flask of water. The dragon had withdrawn, at least for the moment, but it flew at such great speed that there would be little warning if it returned. No, not if it returned; when. She had no doubt that it would be back. They had hurt it, she herself had sliced open its face, as it tried to stick its head into the tower to get at those sheltering inside, and Lydia and several of the guards had inflicted wounds as well, but nothing they had done had hampered its ability to fly or to fight. It was only resting, she guessed, and soon would return seeking to avenge its hurts many times over.

"You should come back into the tower, my Th… my lady," Lydia urged. "If the dragon comes back…"

"I can be inside the doorway in three strides," Elisif said. "I am watching out for the dragon… and for any sign of relief coming from Whiterun." She replaced the stopper in her flask and then frowned as a thought came to her. "That's what the dragon is waiting for, I think. It cannot reach us in the tower. The dragon of Helgen could have smashed its way in but this one lacks the mass and strength for such a feat. It wants its prey out in the open. Once more guards arrive from Whiterun there will not be room in the tower for all. Some will have to remain outside where it can reach them. That's what it wants."

"You really think so, Jarl Elisif?"

"It's only a guess," Elisif admitted. "All I know about dragons comes from being chased through Helgen by one. But if I'm right… when reinforcements arrive we'll have to go out and join them in fighting the dragon. If we stay sheltered in the tower it might kill them all and then we'd be trapped in the tower again. Our best chance is for everybody to attack it all at once."

She tried to speak as if she knew what she was doing and was confident of success. Inside part of her was quaking, and wanted nothing more than to curl up in the deepest recess of the tower, hoping that someone else could kill the dragon, or that it would just go away. Luckily the other part of her, the part that wanted to be a queen worthy of the name, was stronger.

"We'll need to be ready," Elisif said. "We could do with a look-out on the top of the tower. The trouble is that he'll be vulnerable if the dragon attacks." She clenched her jaw. The idea of making a deliberate decision to place someone in a place of danger didn't sit easily with her but she recognized that it was necessary. She went back into the tower, Lydia following behind, and addressed the guards. "I need volunteers."

"I'm willing!" one called, at once.

"And me!" another added.

"Just tell me what you want me to do, Jarl Elisif," said another.

"I need someone with sharp eyes to go up to the top of the tower," she said. "Keep a look-out for the relief Jarl Balgruuf will be sending, and also for the dragon. Call out when you see either. If you get a chance, try and put some arrows into the dragon – but don't expose yourself. If the dragon attacks the top of the tower either get down the stairs or, if you can't make it there, lie down against the parapet so you have some cover from its fire."

"I'm the best with a bow," one of the guards said. "I'll do it."

"I'm as good as you are, Tor," another claimed. "I'll arm-wrestle you for it."

"We don't have time for that," Elisif said. "Toss a coin if you can't decide. As for the rest of us… I think the dragon will attack the reinforcements from Whiterun while they're out in the open. There wouldn't be room in the tower for everyone so if that happens I'm going out to join them in fighting it. Are you with me?"

"We're with you, Jarl Elisif!" shouted one of the guards, echoed at once by all of the others.

"You should stay in the tower, Jarl Elisif," Lydia said. "Skyrim needs you. I am supposed to keep you safe."

"Skyrim doesn't need a leader who hides while others risk their lives," Elisif said.

"You're a true Nord, Jarl Elisif," said the tallest of the guards, "and I will follow you." The rest called out their agreement and Elisif felt a great rush of pride, mingled with some apprehension; she was committed now and couldn't change her mind, not without totally destroying her credibility, and if the dragon came back she would have to fight.

The two rival bowmen had settled their dispute by this time and the one called Tor ascended the steps and went out onto the top of the tower. Nothing happened for a few minutes; Elisif spent the time trying to learn the names of the guards, something that had been impossible during the frantic action of the dragon attack, and then Tor called down from the tower.

"I see people coming along the road from Whiterun," he announced. "A dozen or so, moving at a run."

"Any sign of the dragon?" Elisif called back.

"Not that I can see," came the reply. "The runners are definitely guards, and I think I see Irileth with them. That's strange! There seem to be two Irileths."

"Must be that Dunmer mercenary who hangs out at the Drunken Huntsman," suggested the only woman among the guards, who Elisif had learned was called Hroki. "She wears the same kind of armor as Irileth."

That would be Jenassa, the mercenary Kaie had been going to hire, Elisif guessed. That might mean Kaie was there too. "Is there a woman with them who is smaller than the rest, in armor like mine?" she asked.

"I can't be sure, but I think so," Tor replied. "They've halted, by the rocky bluff at the bend in the road. Now they're coming on again. Still no sign of the… wait! I see the dragon. It's flying in from the south. Coming straight for us."

Elisif drew her sword. She still carried the bow she had picked up in Helgen but she lacked skill with it, all her attempts to hit the dragon in flight had failed, and she doubted if it had enough penetrative power to pierce the dragon's scales even if she made a lucky hit. She would have to hope the others could force it to land. "Ready your bows," she ordered. "If we can bring it down, try to get behind it. It walks on the knuckles of its wing and I don't think it can turn around quickly. If I'm wrong… you can complain to me in Sovngarde." That made a couple of the guards laugh. "Now, let's go! For Skyrim!"

The dragon was upon them almost at once. It swooped over their heads, aiming a cone of fire down at them, and they scattered. As far as Elisif could tell the fire missed completely. Arrows flew in answer, plus a bolt of crackling electricity from Irileth, and the dragon swerved away. Then it banked and came around for another attack.

Elisif tried, at first, to direct the guards but the fight soon dissolved into utter chaos. Everyone was running around trying to avoid the dragon's fiery breath, seeking whatever cover they could find, and loosing arrows whenever the chance presented itself. She caught glimpses of Kaie, who was running and dodging like everyone else, but had no chance to speak to her. One of the guards took a direct hit from a blast of dragon-fire, and died a horrible death, and she saw another with his clothes blazing. One of the other guards knocked his burning comrade to the ground, rolled him over to smother the flames, and forced a healing potion down his throat.

And then the dragon landed. Right in front of Elisif and facing directly at her. Its jaws opened and its head lunged forward.

Elisif ducked under the gaping maw and struck as hard as she could with Bolgeir's sword. She carved a gash a foot long in the underside of the dragon's jaw and blood spurted. The dragon pulled back its head for another strike. Elisif ran forward, under its neck, and slashed again. She heard Lydia, somewhere close at hand, howling "Victory or Sovngarde" and saw the dragon jerk under the impact of an unseen blow.

The dragon turned its head, as if searching for Elisif, and spoke. " _Hi los ni Dovahkiin_ ," it said, sounding almost puzzled, and then snarled. " _Dir ko maar, joor_!"

Elisif had no idea what it was saying and didn't have time to care. She ran forward, trying to stay away from its fangs and flame, and slashing at the dragon's neck as she went. "Get its wings!" she yelled. "Keep it on the ground!" She reached its right wing and chopped at the massive muscle. She couldn't see much of what was happening around her, from that position, but she caught glimpses of guardsmen hacking and slashing at any bit of the dragon they could reach.

The dragon tried to turn but her guess proved to be right. It was awkward on the ground and maneuvered slowly. Then it lurched, slammed into her, and sent her sprawling. From her position on the ground she saw something amazing. Kaie was perched on the dragon's head, striking down with an axe, smiting it hard enough to send pieces of scale flying and casting a Frostbite spell into its skull with her left hand. The dragon howled.

" _Dovahkiin? Nid_!"

The dragon raised its head high, sending Kaie sliding down its neck, and then flopped down. Guards scrambled out of the way as the massive body crashed to the ground. It jerked spasmodically and then was still.

Elisif picked herself up and stabbed at the nearest part of the dragon. There was no reaction. The beast lay unresponsive and inert. "I think it's dead," she said. "We killed it!"

Kaie jumped down from the dragon's back and ran to Elisif. "Are you all right, my Queen?" she asked.

"Are you all right, Jarl Elisif?" Lydia asked, almost simultaneously, arriving at Elisif's side.

"I'm unhurt," Elisif told them. "We did it! We slew the dragon!" She wiped clean her sword and sheathed it.

"Unhurt?" Kaie raised her eyebrows. "There is a cut all the way across your forehead and your arm is bleeding too. You didn't feel it?"

Elisif looked at her right arm and saw that a patch of skin, perhaps two inches by three, had been scraped raw and blood was oozing out. She must have caught it on the dragon's scales. Now that she had noticed it she felt it smarting viciously. She could feel moisture trickling down her forehead but had assumed it to be sweat. A wipe with her hand confirmed that, as Kaie had said, it was blood. "I didn't feel a thing," Elisif said, "but I feel it now."

"Farengar gave me a tome of the Healing Hands spell," Kaie said, "and I can do something about your hurts." She hung her axe on a loop at her belt and dual-cast the spell on Elisif. The pain went away almost at once.

Even as Kaie was casting the spell something else was happening. The dragon's corpse began to glow and then a corona of flame surrounded it.

"What's happening?" Irileth called. "Everybody get back!"

Everyone backed away hastily. The skin and flesh withered away, exposing the skeleton, and a stream of light shot out from the body and entered Kaie. She staggered, clutched her hands to her head, and then straightened up. The light died away.

A Dunmer woman, with some resemblance to Irileth but softer of feature, ran up to Kaie. "What happened? Are you all right, my patron?"

Kaie shook herself. "I think so, Jenassa," she replied. "My head feels… a little strange." She touched her forehead with her fingers. "I don't seem to have taken any harm from that, whatever it was. It looked a little like a Soul Trap spell but going into me instead of into a gem."

"I can't believe it!" exclaimed one of the guards. Elisif didn't recognize the man so he must have been one of the relief force from Whiterun. "You're… Dragonborn!"

"Dragonborn?" Kaie echoed. "What do you mean?"

"In the very oldest tales," the guard explained, "back from when there were still dragons in Skyrim, the Dragonborn would slay dragons and steal their power. That's what you did, isn't it? Steal the dragon's power?"

"Power," Kaie mused. "Drascua said I would gain great power. I don't know what happened to me but you could be right."

"There's only one way to find out," the guard went on, as Elisif tried to remember the stories she had heard about the Dragonborn. "Try to Shout. Only the Dragonborn can Shout without training from the Greybeards."

"Perhaps what you took from the dragon is the missing factor," Jenassa suggested. "Test it on me, sera, as you did in the barrow. This time it might work."

"I'll try," Kaie said, and turned to face Jenassa. "FUS!"

A wave of force shot from her mouth and sent Jenassa staggering back. The guard who had been speaking was caught in the wave, too, and fell on his backside.

"It worked! That was what was missing," Kaie said, and then concern showed on her face. "Are you all right? I hope I didn't hurt you."

"I am fine, my patron," said Jenassa. She sprang lightly to her feet. "That was just like the draugr in the barrow."

"That was Shouting, what you just did," the guard said, as he picked himself up. "You really are Dragonborn."

"That was like what Ulfric did to me at Helgen," Kaie said, "but less powerful. Is Ulfric Dragonborn?"

"The Greybeards taught Ulfric to Shout," Elisif said, "and he used his Voice to kill my husband. He's not Dragonborn."

"And now I have the same power," Kaie said. "I can't match him, not yet, but perhaps I will grow stronger. And then I will avenge your husband… and my father."

It seemed that Kaie, too, had a personal motive to hate Ulfric as well as the general hatred common to all the Forsworn. "I'd rather hoped to avenge Torygg myself," Elisif said, "but if you get to Ulfric first I won't object."

Then the guards, both those from Whiterun and those from the tower, clustered around Kaie and talked of the Dragonborn. Elisif stepped back slightly and stood with Lydia. Irileth, who had been on the other side of the dragon, came around the skeletal remains and approached Elisif.

"That was the hairiest fight I've ever been in, and I've been in more than a few," she remarked. "Jarl Balgruuf was worried about you, Jarl Elisif, but I see you are in good shape. You conducted yourself well, from what I could see, like a true warrior."

"Jarl Elisif led us to victory," Hroki, the woman member of the watchtower garrison, told her. "Without her we would not have known what to do. Jarl Elisif for High Queen!" A roar of assent came from the other Western Watchtower guards.

"Thank you," Elisif said, feeling the heat of a blush in her cheeks. "I couldn't have achieved anything without the valiant Whiterun Guard, of course." This met with universal approval and more calls pledging support for her cause. "And Lydia," Elisif added, "and my protector from Helgen, Kaie, and her companion."

Irileth turned to Kaie. "I see now why Jarl Elisif has been singing your praises. I don't know about this Dragonborn business but someone who will climb up a dragon, and stand on its head hitting it with an axe, is more than enough for me. I'm glad you're with us."

Kaie dipped her head. "I thank you," she said, and then turned her attention back to Elisif. "I did not finish healing you, my Queen," she said.

Elisif glanced at her arm and ran fingers across her forehead. "I'm fine now. See if there is anyone else who needs healing. I saw someone burned by the dragon…"

"I am well now, Jarl Elisif," someone behind her spoke up. She turned and saw one of the watchtower guards; his name was Asgarne, if Elisif remembered correctly, but she wasn't sure because he looked rather different now. His sash was hanging in charred shreds and his beard was reduced to blackened stubble. "Balthmar gave me potions and Hroki knows some Restoration magic. But I hope my beard grows back!"

Elisif dampened a cloth and wiped the blood from her face as Irileth held a roll call. Three of the guards had died in the fight; one in the initial attack and two, one each from the watchtower garrison and the relief force, in the final conflict. There were some minor injuries still untreated and Kaie and Hroki healed them. Lydia retrieved Elisif's pack from where it had fallen when the carriage overturned; there was little in it save for her clothes, which were too expensive to lightly discard and which would be wearable once the tear was stitched up and the blood washed out, and a couple of books and some food for the journey. Nothing in it was breakable, the dragon fire had not touched it, and Elisif was pleased to have it back intact.

"I'll get a wagon sent out from Whiterun to bring back the bodies of the fallen, for interment with honor in the Hall of the Dead," Irileth said. "Jarl Elisif, I take it you'll be coming back to Whiterun with us? I know you want to get back to Solitude as soon as possible but carrying on from here, on foot, is hardly ideal."

"Indeed so," Elisif agreed. "It's too late to continue now and there are some things I'll need to discuss with Jarl Balgruuf anyway. I'll set off again tomorrow."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Ri'saad the Khajiit sat cross-legged at the front of his tent and looked up at Elisif. "You truly are Jarl Elisif? This one was told that you had died," he said.

"Well, I didn't," Elisif said. "I had a narrow escape but made it out alive. Who told you?"

As Ri'saad was opening his mouth to reply a thunderous noise interrupted him.

" _DO… VAH… KIIN!_ "

It seemed to come from afar, not from anywhere close, but still was loud and shook Elisif to her core. Beside her Lydia staggered slightly and Kaie dropped to her knees and clapped her hands over her ears. The guards all seemed affected, too, although to a lesser extent. Ri'saad, Irileth, and Jenassa merely raised their eyebrows and looked around.

" _Nefoedd mawr_!" Kaie exclaimed. "What was that?" Jenassa held out a hand and helped Kaie to her feet.

"I heard the dragon say that word, ' _Dovahkiin_ ', before we killed it," Elisif said. "Perhaps this cry was the big dragon, the one from Helgen, realizing that its brother, or child or whatever, is dead."

"I think it was… the Greybeards," said Asgarne, the guard with the singed beard. "Calling from High Hrothgar."

"Jarl Elisif mentioned the Greybeards earlier," Kaie said. "This call did not seem… threatening to me. It felt more like a… summons of some kind."

"I just heard a word I didn't understand," Elisif said, "but it seemed to affect you more than me. Perhaps Farengar would know more." She turned her attention back to Ri'saad. "I had asked you who told you I was dead," she reminded the Khajiit.

"This one spoke with some Imperial soldiers on the road," Ri'saad said. "One said that Jarl Elisif had been slain by a dragon in Helgen. He said they had captured Ulfric Stormcloak but he had escaped."

"That much is true," Elisif said, "but, as you can see, I'm not dead. Be sure to let people know that when your caravan moves on."

"This one will do that, Jarl Elisif," said Ri'saad. "Will you buy from me? Khajiit has wares, if you have coin."

"I don't have all that much coin with me," Elisif said, "and I can't spare much time either. Unless you have an Orcish sword with a Nordic-style cross-guard. I'd buy that."

"Alas, this one has not heard of such a weapon," Ri'saad said.

"Maybe Beirand can make one for me," Elisif mused. "I'd better head on up to Dragonsreach."

"May your road lead you to warm sands," Ri'saad wished her.

"Yours also," Elisif said. She left the Khajiit encampment and followed the others into the city. Irileth sent most of her guards into the barracks, just inside the main gate, and took only Asgarne and another guard from the original watchtower garrison, named Fenrar, with them on the way up to Dragonsreach.

As they made their way along the main street Elisif noticed, with approval, water buckets placed near every wooden structure. Jarl Balgruuf must have taken her suggestion to heart and Proventus Avenicci had done a good job of putting it into practice. She made a mental note to tell Falk Firebeard to organize similar precautions in Solitude. And then, as they passed through the market district, she heard a tall ash-blonde Nord woman making disparaging remarks.

"So, the milk-drinker would-be Queen comes crawling back to Whiterun after being rescued by our guards," the young woman said. "And she thinks she'd make a good ruler for Skyrim. Huh."

Lydia stepped toward her. "You know nothing, Olfina Gray-Mane," she said. "Jarl Elisif fought as well and bravely as any. Could you face a dragon?"

"You would be better off keeping quiet than flapping your mouth off about matters you know nothing about," Irileth told Olfina. "Jarl Elisif did well and has earned my respect."

"Without Jarl Elisif the dragon would have slain most of us," Asgarne added, angrily. "She knew what to do and led us to victory. Your words are vile slander. You had better watch yourself in future. If you so much as drop an apple core on the street I shall take delight in hauling you off to jail."

"That goes for me too," Fenrar said, "and for everyone who was at the Western Watchtower. Even if you don't litter we might take you in for lollygagging."

"There is no need for that, you two," Elisif told them. Olfina's scornful words had hurt, at first, but the spirited defense from Lydia and the two guards had more than made up for that. "A citizen should be free to speak her mind without fear of reprisal. Ulfric might have said that those who aren't with him are against him but I want to be better than that. Let her speak freely even if you don't like what she is saying."

Olfina's eyes opened very wide. "Is it true? You didn't hide but fought the dragon?"

"I did," Elisif confirmed. "I drew its blood and it drew mine. I don't know if I did it much harm but with twenty of us hitting it, and Kaie here standing on its head hitting it with spells and an axe, it died quickly enough." A thought struck her and she turned to Kaie. "I thought you specialized in swords."

"I do," Kaie said, "but I took the axe from a… draugr, in Bleak Falls Barrow, and found that it bore a Frost enchantment. I suspected that it would be particularly effective against a fire-breathing dragon, and my lack of skill with the weapon wouldn't matter when I was just hitting a big target as hard as I could."

"Just as I was doing with my sword," Elisif said. "It was too big to miss."

Olfina Gray-Mane spoke up again. "Jarl Elisif, I am sorry for what I said," she said. "I should have known that the women of this land are just as strong and brave as its men. You are a true Nord. Please forgive my thoughtless words."

"You are forgiven," Elisif said. The apology had pleased her more than the original comment had hurt and, after all, only a few days ago Olfina's assumptions would most likely have been correct. "You were only saying what I am sure many people would have thought. Farewell."

They moved on, leaving Olfina staring after them, and made their way out of the market area and up to Dragonsreach. Jarl Balgruuf stood up as they entered, and came forward to meet them, with his brother Hrongar and steward Proventus Avenicci following behind him.

"Elisif!" Balgruuf greeted her. "I feared for your safety. You are unhurt?"

"I'm fine," Elisif assured him. "I got a little scratched up but nothing serious. Kaie healed me."

Balgruuf turned to Irileth. "Is the dragon dead? What casualties did we suffer?"

"It is dead, my lord," Irileth reported. "We lost three men. Elisif had organized an effective defense before my party arrived. Asgarne and Fenrar, and Lydia, can give you the details."

"Later," he said. "Elisif, I heard the Greybeards calling. Is it true? Are you… Dragonborn?"

"Me?" Elisif's eyes widened in surprise. "Oh, no, I'm not the Dragonborn. That is Kaie."

Balgruuf's eyebrows climbed. "Kaie? A Reachwoman Dragonborn? I expected it to be a Nord… but the Divines know best, I suppose, and she is a formidable warrior."

"She leapt upon the dragon's head and smote it with her axe," Irileth said. "We were all striking it, from all sides, but I suspect Kaie inflicted the most severe injuries upon the beast. And then, when it went down, it broke apart and some kind of energy rushed from it and into Kaie."

"She truly is Dragonborn, Jarl Balgruuf," Fenrar put in. "She Shouted and felled both Kjar and the lady Dunmer."

"Dragonborn?" Farengar had emerged from his chambers at the side of the hall and approached. "The intrepid retriever of the Dragonstone is the Dragonborn? Remarkable. Tell me of the dragon. Was it the dragon that attacked Helgen?"

"No," Elisif told him. "It was perhaps half the size. The one from Helgen would have killed us all."

"This one would have killed us all if not for Jarl Elisif," Asgarne said. "She took command and organized our defense. We wouldn't have known what to do if not for her."

"You'll know next time," Elisif said. "What little I knew came from being chased around Helgen, and seeing glimpses of the legion fighting the dragon."

"You think there will be a next time?" Balgruuf said.

"We can't count on there not being," said Elisif. "If there are two dragons there might well be more and I believe that there are. The dragons are back."

"But why now?" Balgruuf wondered. "They have been gone for centuries."

"Because we are weak," Elisif suggested. "The losses from the Great War, and now the Stormcloak rebellion. And wasn't there an order of dedicated dragon-slayers, called the Blades, in years gone by? I read something about them. They're all gone now. They were disbanded after the war, if I remember right."

"They were," Balgruuf confirmed. "But at least we have a Dragonborn now. Kaie, for your part in saving Jarl Elisif, and the services you have done for me and my city, you deserve honor. I wish to name you Thane of Whiterun, the greatest honor it is in my power to grant… provided the 'other allegiances' Elisif has mentioned do not make it impossible for you to accept."

"We have no quarrel with Whiterun, and I have seen that you are a Jarl worthy of respect," Kaie said. "I am honored to accept. But everyone who fought the dragon deserves recognition."

"They shall have it," Balgruuf said. "A special insignia as a badge of honor, perhaps, as well as a reward in coin? I shall think of something appropriate. Now, as a Thane you gain the right to purchase property in the city and, of course, you are entitled to a Housecarl. Normally this would have been Lydia, who is the only one who has been trained for the role, but at the moment she has other responsibilities."

"I know little of such matters," Kaie said, "but… could Jenassa be appointed to the role, if she is willing? We worked well together in Bleak Falls Barrow and I found her to be a staunch comrade."

"I see no reason why not," said Balgruuf, "if she agrees."

Jenassa's face had shown almost no expression since Elisif had first seen her but now she broke into a beaming smile. "I agree," Jenassa said. "Kaie and I are two of a kind, I feel, and I am glad to have met her. I will serve her faithfully."

"Then it is settled," said Balgruuf. "We are honored to have you as Thane of our city, Kaie Dragonborn, and we welcome Jenassa as a Housecarl. But there is something else to consider. You heard the call of the Greybeards, I take it?"

"The cry of ' _Dovahkiin_ '? I did," Kaie confirmed, "but I did not know what it meant."

"The Greybeards have summoned you to High Hrothgar," Balgruuf told her. "You may not know our Nord traditions so I will enlighten you. They are the Masters of the Way of the Voice… of Shouting. They live in seclusion at High Hrothgar, high on the Throat of the World, and in the old stories they always summoned the Dragonborn for training. You need to go to them. There is no refusing the summons of the Greybeards. I envy you, you know. To climb the seven thousand steps again… I made the pilgrimage once. It's a very… peaceful place. No matter. Go to High Hrothgar and learn what the Greybeards can teach you."

Kaie's brow furrowed. "It would be useful to have training in the use of this Voice magic," she said, "but I want to see Queen Elisif safely back to Solitude."

"I have Lydia," Elisif said, "and she will be enough. You should go to High Hrothgar… but come to me in Solitude straight afterwards. Oh, one thing, Kaie… you should not call me Queen before the Moot has confirmed me as High Queen."

"You are Queen as far as I am concerned," Kaie said, "but if you wish me to avoid using the title I will call you _fy Mrenhines_ , that is 'my Queen' in the old language of the Reach."

Elisif couldn't help smiling. "That would give me great pleasure," she said.

"You will have my vote at the Moot, when it comes," Balgruuf promised. "Now, I am sure that all of you could use a meal. Sit down, everyone, and you can tell me more about the fight with the dragon."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Elisif emerged from the apothecary's shop Arcadia's Cauldron, where she had bought potions of Healing and Resist Fire, and walked out into the marketplace. Lydia, as always, followed close behind.

Olfina Gray-Mane had been in the market when they came down from Dragonsreach but, on seeing them, she had gone into the Bannered Mare inn. Now she came out again, holding a scabbarded sword, and walked toward them. Lydia put her hand to the hilt of her sword but Elisif saw no sign that Olfina intended to draw her weapon.

"Jarl Elisif," Olfina said, "I was greatly discourteous to you, earlier, and you forgave me most graciously. Allow me to offer you this in recompense." She held out the sword. "I persuaded my father, Eorlund, the finest smith in all Skyrim, to part with a sword of Skyforge steel for you, Jarl Elisif. Normally he makes them only for the Companions… but you fought a dragon."

Elisif took the sword and drew it from the scabbard. It looked very similar to the steel sword she had bought from Adrianne Avenicci but felt a little lighter and better balanced; much better balanced than the tip-heavy Orcish weapon. She dropped into one of the stances Amren had taught her and went through one of the defenses and attacks. The sword moved like a living extension of her arm and she was sure she was wielding it faster than she could with either the ordinary steel sword or Bolgeir's Orcish blade.

"This is… superb," Elisif said. "Truly your father is a smith of surpassing skill." She felt guilty about accepting the gift but declining it might offend Olfina and, to be honest, she liked the sword too much to be able to turn it down. She fastened the scabbard to her belt in place of the ordinary steel sword. "Now I am in your debt."

"There is something you might be able to do that would more than repay me," Olfina said.

So, there was more to the gift of the sword than just reinforcing her apology. "Go on," Elisif told her.

"It would be better coming from my mother, Fralia," Olfina said. "Speak to her at her jewelry stall just over there. I'd better get back to work."

Fralia Gray-Mane was an elderly woman, wrinkled and gray-haired, old enough that Elisif was a little surprised that she had a daughter as young as Olfina; probably, Elisif guessed, Olfina was the youngest of several. Fralia was reluctant to talk in the public market-place and asked Elisif to come to her house in a little while.

Lydia advised against acceding to the old lady's request. The Gray-Manes, after all, were known supporters of the Stormcloaks. Elisif could see her point but decided to go anyway. If anything happened to her the Whiterun Guard would investigate thoroughly, people would remember her talking to Olfina and then to Fralia, and the two women would be in serious trouble. Elisif doubted that they would risk that; in fact she doubted that they had anything nefarious in mind at all. She thought about what they were likely to want and hazarded a guess that, as they were a Stormcloak family, the likeliest possibility was that one of the family was a prisoner of the Imperials and they wanted her to arrange their release.

A few minutes later Elisif and Lydia were inside the Gray-Mane house being threatened by a big man with a two-handed axe. Lydia had her sword out in response; Elisif kept her own weapon sheathed.

"Avulstein, put that down!" the old lady snapped. "They're here to help us get Thorald back!"

"But she's the Empire's puppet queen!" the axe-man said.

"I'm no-one's puppet," Elisif said. "Put the axe away. It doesn't scare me. I've fought a dragon whose head was bigger than you." She could see something of a facial resemblance between the axe-wielder and Olfina, although of course Olfina didn't have a beard, and he looked to be in perhaps his mid-thirties. An older brother, probably, she thought.

"Really?" Avulstein lowered the axe.

"The guards all say that she did," Fralia confirmed.

"I did," Elisif said. "Lydia, sheath your sword. Now let's talk like civilized people. I'm guessing that the 'Thorald' Fralia mentioned is your brother? And he's a prisoner of the Imperials?"

"That's right." Avulstein set the axe aside. "The Battle-Borns say that he's dead… but we don't believe them. I know he was taken alive."

"If he is a prisoner I should be able to get General Tullius to agree to exchange him for an Imperial prisoner of the Stormcloaks," Elisif said. He had always ignored her on important issues but, after all, he had agreed to spare Kaie from execution, at her request, and she expected he'd regard a single Stormcloak prisoner as too trivial a matter to argue about. And if he did… she could be awkward, too, now that she had gained in confidence. She could block his requisitions of supplies, refuse his requests for the Solitude Guard to perform duties for the Legion… nothing that would really harm the war effort, but would make his job more difficult. He'd give in, she was sure. "I'll speak to him as soon as I get back to Solitude."

"You would do that for us?" Avulstein's forehead furrowed. "But why, when we support the Stormcloaks?"

"I want the defeat of Ulfric to bring an end to strife," Elisif said. "I don't want there to be people still harboring grudges against me long after the rebellion is over." She had a couple of other reasons, but she kept those to herself; first, that it would be to her advantage to have at least a few of the Stormcloak supporters see her as benevolent and honorable, and second, that it would be good practice for negotiating on issues that she regarded as more important. Especially her plan to arrange a peace deal with the Forsworn.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Elisif poured out two goblets of wine, one for herself and one for Kaie, and settled herself in her chair. "I can't support complete independence for the Reach," she told Kaie. "The other Jarls, and the Empire, would never stand for it. I might be able to persuade them into some sort of… compromise."

"An independent province within the Empire," Kaie proposed. "That's what we were asking for, after we took Markarth, before Ulfric arrived and massacred us."

"You can't have been very old then," Elisif said. "You don't look any older than me, and I wasn't born until a year after the end of the Great War."

"I wasn't quite two years old when my mother escaped from Markarth with me in her arms," Kaie revealed. "My father… didn't make it."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Elisif said. She remembered the deaths of her own parents, and then had a flashback to her husband dying on the floor of the throne room, and paused to take a drink of her wine. "Even status as an autonomous province would be beyond my power to grant, at least in the near future," she continued, once she had regained her composure. "The other Jarls would unite against me to oppose it. We'd have to work toward it bit by bit. Perhaps starting with getting a Reachman appointed as Jarl? I can't have Jarl Igmund deposed but he might be willing to relinquish the Reach, and take the Jarldom of Eastmarch in its stead, once Ulfric is removed."

"A Reachman, or woman, as Jarl might be a good first step," Kaie said, "but how would they be chosen?"

"A plebiscite?" Elisif suggested.

"The Silver-Blood family would try to find some way to interfere with it," Kaie said, "but it's a good idea in principle. What would you want in return?"

"Assistance against the Stormcloaks," Elisif said. "A cessation of hostilities against the Empire. No more raids on civilians. Any Stormcloaks in the Reach would be fair game, of course. Some Forsworn scouts and mages aiding the Legion."

"I see you have thought much about this," Kaie said. "It might be difficult to work closely with the Legion. There is much resentment and mistrust on both sides."

"We will have to be persuasive, then," Elisif said. She sipped at her wine, and then took a big gulp as she considered the prospect of trying to exert her authority back in Solitude.

"I have no authority to agree any kind of deal," Kaie said, "as I hold no position of command within the Forsworn, yet I am not altogether without influence. I can pass your proposals on to those who do hold power – and, though I cannot promise they will accept them, I can be sure that they will at least listen."

"I hope General Tullius listens to me," Elisif said. "He only agreed to release you because I kept pestering him and he gave in just to shut me up. I've thought of a few things I might be able to do to get him to give way on minor issues, but for something as important as this… probably he'll just pat me on the head and tell me to go back to my embroidery and not concern myself with lofty matters. It was easier dealing with the dragon, in a way, because at least I could hit that with my sword. I can't hit General Tullius!"

Kaie grinned. "Perhaps not," she said, "but I think you will manage. I have seen that you find strength when it is needed. Would you like me to come with you to Solitude? I know nothing about these 'Greybeards' who have summoned me but surely they can wait."

"I have been a little worried about you going to High Hrothgar," Elisif admitted, "because you will have to pass through Ivarstead, in the Rift, which is a Stormcloak hold. Even so, I think you had better see the Greybeards first, before you come to Solitude. Once you've been accepted as the Dragonborn by the Greybeards it will give you more status in the eyes of the Nords. Come to Solitude straight after that."

"Worry not, _fy Mrenhines_ ," Kaie said. "The Rift is as far from the Reach as you can get in Skyrim and they will not be familiar with my people. My being accompanied by a Dunmer, not something that would be expected for one of the Forsworn, will make it still less likely that I will be recognized. I will pass for a Breton mercenary and avoid any trouble. Once the Greybeards let me go I will join you in Solitude. I will have to turn aside, briefly, to send a message to my… superiors, but other than that I shall hurry back to you as fast as I can."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

They left the city together, early in the morning, and went past the stables to where the roads divided. There they said their farewells; Elisif, seized by a sudden impulse, embraced Kaie. The Forsworn girl responded with a dazzling smile and returned the embrace warmly.

"May the Divines watch over you, Kaie," Elisif wished.

"And may the Old Gods watch over you, _fy Mrenhines_ ," Kaie responded. " _Hwyl fawr am nawr_ _!_ "

Kaie and Jenassa headed off to the east; Elisif and Lydia went west, retracing the route their carriage had taken the day before. They were on foot, this time; there was no other carriage available, and no replacement had yet been found for the driver slain by the dragon, and Elisif didn't have enough coin remaining to buy two horses. She had decided against asking Balgruuf for a loan, as he had done so much for her already, and buying a single horse, and one of them having to walk, wouldn't make the journey any quicker and so wasn't worth it.

The first half of the journey passed pleasantly enough. Lydia wasn't much of a conversationalist, tending to restrict her replies to 'Yes, Jarl Elisif' or 'No, Jarl Elisif', but the weather was fair and there was plenty to see. Giants and mammoths in the distance, deer grazing close by and then suddenly breaking into flight when they noticed the two women, and once a sabre cat feasting on a kill. Elisif had heard that sabre cats had such a craving for human flesh that they would abandon anything else they were doing in order to attack humans. This one, however, merely raised its head briefly and then went back to devouring the dead deer.

The day passed without incident. They arrived at Rorikstead in the early evening and stopped there for the night, dining and then sleeping at the Frostfruit Inn. They made an early start, the next morning, but they had not been on the road long before they encountered trouble.

At a place where the road forked, one branch going off toward Markarth and the other descending a steep slope before heading for Dragon Bridge and Solitude, four bandits lay in wait. A body, presumably that of a previous victim, lay in plain sight on the road and gave Lydia warning of the danger. She hustled Elisif off the road, and into the shelter of some rocks, even as two arrows streaked from concealed positions and missed them narrowly.

The bandits followed up on foot. Two came along the road and a third clambered up the rocks to, as he thought, take the two women from the rear. Elisif heard him coming and was on him, delivering one of the thrusts Amren had taught her, before he could bring his bow to the aim. The Skyforge blade pierced through the bandit's studded leather armor, drove on through his breastbone, and stopped only when the crossguard struck his chest with an impact that jarred Elisif's arm. The bandit staggered back with a look of utter surprise frozen on his face, slid free of the blade, and fell back down the rocks to land on the road and lie still.

Lydia met the other two as they left the road. She staggered the one to her left with a shield-bash to the face and, as he reeled, she hit her right-hand opponent with two swift sword-strokes. He went down, his torso gashed and bleeding, and she turned back to the other and brought her sword down in a blow that split open his skull.

A fourth bandit was approaching, more cautiously, but when he saw the fate that had befallen his fellows he turned and ran. Lydia dropped her sword and shield, picked up a bow from one of her fallen foes, nocked an arrow, took aim, and loosed. The arrow hit the fleeing bandit in the middle of the back and he went down. One of Lydia's first opponents was moving, groaning in pain and making feeble attempts to rise; Lydia changed from bow back to sword and administered a coup de grâce.

That was the end of the encounter. The whole affair had taken only a minute or so. Elisif stood still for a moment, almost unable to believe the ease with which she had slain her opponent, and stared at the blood which was smeared along her blade all the way from point to hilt. She pulled herself together and wiped the blade clean on the clothing of one of the bandits Lydia had slain.

"You should take this, Jarl Elisif," Lydia said, after making sure that Elisif had suffered no injury. She held out the bow she had acquired from the fallen bandit. "It is not as good as my own but better than the one that you are carrying. You really should have replaced it before now."

"That's what Kaie told me," Elisif admitted. She saw a frown appear on Lydia's brow at the mention of Kaie's name; Lydia, Elisif suspected, was jealous of Kaie and regarded the Forsworn girl as a threat to her position as Housecarl. "I didn't see the point of spending money on a new bow when I have so little skill," Elisif went on, "but I'll take this one."

She slipped off her shield and tested the draw of the bow; it was stronger than the bow she had been using but not by so much that she couldn't manage it. She tried a practice shaft, aiming at the body of the bandit Lydia had shot, and overshot the target by fifty yards.

"You need to aim below your target when firing downhill," Lydia advised her.

Elisif tried again. This time she missed only by a few feet. "I'll practice later," she said, casting down her original bow and slinging the new one in its place. "We'd better get moving."

They descended the slope, into the Karth valley, and approached the bridge that spanned the river. Beyond it they saw a crude stockade and a suspension bridge of wooden planks that passed over the road between the stockade and a rocky outcrop. Elisif and Bolgeir had passed through unhindered on their hurried ride to Helgen, and Elisif had scarcely even noticed the place, but as she crossed the river bridge with Lydia they discovered that the encampment was occupied and hostile.

"All right, that's far enough." A man in fur armor stood on the overhanging walkway aiming a bow down at them. A bandit. "The toll here is a hundred septims. Pay up, and you walk right through. Refuse, and you'll never see the other side." Elisif saw other bandits to each side. Wooden containers held piles of boulders, restrained by gates, ready to be released to tumble down onto the road and crush any who tried to pass.

"I trust them not, Jarl Elisif," Lydia cautioned. "They will seize us when we approach to pay the toll."

"I think you're right," Elisif agreed, "but they would seem to have all the advantages if we fight."

"Indeed so," said Lydia, "but we can work our way around if we scramble across these rocks. Follow me, Jarl Elisif."

They made their way over the rocks without much difficulty but the bandits came down from their positions and pursued. An arrow struck Lydia's shoulder but failed to pierce her steel armor.

"No arrows!" one of the bandits called. "Take them alive! The fair-haired one wears a noble's circlet and might be good for a ransom. And if she isn't… she can warm our beds until we get tired of her."

Elisif might have been able to outrun them; her armor was light and unrestrictive and the pack she carried weighed very little, and the only heavy thing she carried was her shield. Lydia's steel armor meant that she stood no chance of getting away. She turned to fight and Elisif turned back to join her.

The first bandit to reach Lydia was cut to pieces with the same ruthless efficiency Lydia had displayed against the other bandits in the previous ambush. Those behind him hesitated, gathered together, and set upon Lydia three at once.

By that time, however, Elisif had rejoined her Housecarl. One of the bandits tried to grab her, obeying the instruction to take her alive; a fatal mistake. Her Skyforge steel sword severed his grasping hand and then, as he recoiled and clutched at the bleeding stump, Elisif struck again and sliced open his throat.

Lydia killed one of the other two even as he gave up his attempt to seize her and tried to draw his sword. The other one had been holding a war-axe by the shaft just behind the blade, intending to use the haft as a cudgel, but now he reversed it to use as a lethal weapon. He was too slow. Before he could get the axe into position Elisif fell on him from the side, and Lydia struck from the front, and the bandit collapsed in a welter of blood.

The next bandit halted and backed away. "To arms! To arms!" he cried. "Tell the boss to get his armor on! These are no ordinary women." He turned around and ran back the way he had come.

"We had best follow up and attack," Lydia said, "for they will all be after us in a short time."

"Agreed," Elisif said. "This scum shall prey upon travelers no more."

They went around the rocks to approach the bandit camp from the west. The track leading to the stockade was partially blocked by barricades made of sharpened stakes. A bandit guard in iron armor came out from behind the barricades and moved to intercept them.

"You don't look so tough," he said. He wore a horned iron helmet that hid all of his face other than his beard. "Who do you think you are, Aela the Huntress and Nadja?"

Lydia suddenly stopped in her tracks and cried out in pain. Elisif looked and saw that Lydia had stood on a bear-trap, lying partially concealed in grass, and it had snapped shut on her leg. Her steel cuffed boots might have saved her from serious injury but she was held in place, unable to advance or retreat, and unable to help Elisif as the iron-clad bandit advanced to the attack.

"Well, you're not Aela," the bandit said. "She'd never have been that stupid. Die, bitch!" He raised his mace and brought it down in a mighty blow.

Elisif made as if to block the mace with her shield but then, worried that the impact of the heavy weapon might break her arm even through the shield, dodged to her left instead. The bandit missed and the force of the blow sent him off balance. Without any need for conscious thought Elisif emulated a strike she had seen Kaie use in Helgen Keep. She slashed the tip of the Skyforge blade across just above the top of the iron breastplate. Her opponent dropped his mace, clutched at his throat, and then toppled with blood spurting from between his fingers.

Elisif picked up the mace from where it had fallen and ran back to Lydia. Using the haft of the mace as a lever they pried open the jaws of the trap and freed Lydia's leg. She took out a healing potion and gulped it down just as another bandit came out of the stockade's gate and approached.

"Lorkhan's balls, you've killed Brodir!" he cried, and fled back into the stockade.

Elisif and Lydia made their way through the barricades, Lydia limping slightly, and approached the gate. In front of the stockade's wooden wall, to one side of the path, were several training dummies of wood and straw. Elisif glanced in that direction and, to her dismay, saw that a man had been tied to one of them and used as an archery target.

He was a tall man, red-haired, wearing Imperial light armor pierced with a dozen arrows. He must have been dead for at least a day, probably longer, and carrion birds had pecked out his eyes and made gouges in his cheeks. Even so Elisif still recognized him and horror and grief flooded through her.

It was Hadvar.


	4. Daydream Believer and a Homecoming Queen

**Four: Daydream Believer and a Homecoming Queen**

Elisif stopped and stared at Hadvar's mutilated body.

"Jarl Elisif!" Lydia called. Elisif didn't react. "Jarl Elisif!" Lydia repeated, shouting louder. "The bandits are coming!"

Elisif shook herself out of her trance and turned. Two bandits were coming out through the stockade gate. One was a fur-clad mage. The slight shimmering of a protective spell, probably Oakflesh, surrounded him. The other was a big man in banded iron armor, armed with war-axe and shield. The mage halted, raising his hands to cast a spell, while the axe-man advanced on Lydia.

It was a Frostbite spell and Elisif was the target. The icy cold of the spell bit into her, chilling her to the bone despite the resistance to cold given by her Nord blood, and she felt her movements slowing. She had potions of Resist Fire in her pouch but nothing against cold. She went forward, regardless, powered by anger that was building into rage.

Lydia met the axe-wielder and caught his blow on her shield, angled so that the axe glanced off rather than transferring its force to her arm, and retaliated with a overhand sword cut. He blocked with his shield but Lydia converted the slash to a thrust, sliding her sword along his shield and up, and drove the point of the sword into his face and tore open his cheek from nose to ear. He fell back, raising his shield to cover his face, and Lydia pulled back her sword and then delivered a low slash across his thighs.

Elisif kept advancing. The mage's nerve broke and he turned and ran back into the stockade. Elisif turned aside and went for the axe-man. He was mounting a desperate defense against Lydia, being driven back slowly and only just keeping her sword away, and was wide open to Elisif as she came in from his side and thrust her blade into his side just below his cuirass. He staggered, his shield-arm slipped low, and Lydia finished him off with a thrust to the throat.

"Well struck, Jarl Elisif," Lydia said. "Are you all right?"

"I'll manage," Elisif said. She took out a Stamina potion, gulped it down, and tossed away the empty vial. The cold-induced stiffness in her muscles eased.

"We have hurt them enough that I think they would not pursue if we left now," Lydia suggested.

Elisif shook her head. "They murdered Hadvar," she said. "They must pay. I will not leave any of them alive." She strode forward, through the stockade gates, and Lydia followed.

Inside the enclosure were tents, pitched alongside the walls to each side, all seemingly empty. A few yards beyond the gate a wooden ramp led up to a higher section of the camp and, at the top of the ramp, the mage had been joined by a Bosmer archer. He loosed as soon as they came into view and his shaft struck Lydia's cuirass. The arrow glanced off the steel, harmlessly, and Elisif ducked into cover behind a tent. Lydia charged forward as the archer drew another arrow from his quiver.

The mage cast his Frostbite spell again, targeting Lydia, slowing her down. Elisif came out from behind the tent and ran to support her Housecarl. The archer backed away, to gain space and time for another shot, but bumped into another bandit running up from behind. The arrow went wild and then Lydia reached the mage. Her sword lashed out. The Oakflesh spell proved ineffective against the power of the blow and the mage went down with his head split open.

Elisif caught up with Lydia and the two of them fell on the archer and the new arrival. Lydia reached the archer as he dropped his bow and snatched for a dagger. She caught him with the dagger half drawn and drove her sword through his chest.

Elisif faced off against the other bandit, a swordsman, and parried his first strike with one of the moves taught to her by Amren. Her riposte drove him back, as he avoided being skewered only by retreating at speed, and she attacked again. This time he parried but didn't riposte, merely drawing back his sword for a downward blow, and Elisif realized that she was better trained than the bandit. She used her shield to block his low attack and thrust with her sword. He dodged aside and was taken completely by surprise when Lydia turned from the mortally wounded bowman and brought her sword around in a cut to the neck. Blood gushed from the wound and the bandit toppled.

"Well fought," a voice called. At the far end of the stockade was a wooden hut, crudely constructed but no doubt more comfortable than a tent, and in its doorway stood a bandit taller than any of those they had fought thus far. He wore a complete set of steel armor, including a helm that covered most of his face, and bore a steel shield and an Orcish sword. "I could almost thank you. I was planning on leaving as soon as I could be sure I could get away before the others noticed. You've saved me having to worry about that, or about getting knifed in the back if they found out I was skimming from the take. I'm grateful enough that I won't even kill you… as long as you leave now."

"True Nords never back down," Elisif said. "You murdered Hadvar. For that, you die." This bandit, undoubtedly their chief, looked much more formidable than those they had slain. Even so, Elisif was confident that he couldn't take on both herself and Lydia at the same time.

"On your own head be it," said the bandit chief. "I gave you your chance." He strode forward with his sword in a guard position. Elisif adopted the same pose and waited for him to come to her. Lydia raised her sword…

…and then the dying bowman, crawling on the ground with an arrow in his hand, thrust out and stabbed the arrowhead into Lydia's leg. The wound wasn't deep but she cried out, went rigid, and crashed to the ground. The archer slumped down and lay still, dead at last, but the damage had been done. Paralysis poison.

The gang leader laughed as Elisif gasped in horror. "You're very pretty," he remarked, "but too dangerous to take chances with. I'd better kill you before your friend recovers." He attacked as soon as he was within sword reach.

He was better than the fallen members of his band. Stronger, faster, and more skilled. Elisif managed to hold him off but just barely. She parried a sword thrust and riposted but he parried and counter-riposted in turn; the only thing that saved her was that her Skyforge sword was a little more responsive than his heavier Orcish weapon and she turned his blade aside mere inches from her throat. Then she was forced to jump back as he swung his shield at her head. He aimed a swinging cut at her left side, she blocked with her shield, and then he launched a back-hand slash at her neck and she parried with her sword. He recovered too quickly for her to try a riposte and then attacked again.

A groan from Lydia attracted the bandit's attention. He began to work his way toward her, forcing Elisif to follow in case he killed Lydia where she lay before she could intervene, and then Lydia moved slightly. The bandit chief took another two quick steps in that direction and then spun and lashed out with a cut aimed at Elisif's chest. Elisif parried again, striking the back of his blade and deflecting his blow, and then she remembered what Amren had said about the flaw in the design of Orcish swords.

She acted at once to take advantage. She slid her blade along the back of his and connected with his hand. There was no crossguard on that side of his blade and, though he wore armored gauntlets, the steel protected only the back of his hand. Her sword struck him between fingers and thumb, where only leather covered his flesh, and the Skyforge steel sliced through the leather, bit deep into his hand, and almost severed his thumb. He lost his grip on his weapon and the sword fell to the ground.

"Aagh!" The bandit yelled in pain and back-pedaled frantically, keeping his shield up, then turned and ran for the hut leaving a trail of blood droplets behind him.

Elisif didn't follow but turned to Lydia. She was moving now, putting her hands beneath her and then clambering laboriously to her feet, then bending to retrieve her fallen sword. Her calf was bleeding, although not heavily, from a wound just behind the steel greave that protected her shin; it was the leg that had been injured by the bear-trap. Elisif handed her a healing potion.

"Thank you, my Jarl," Lydia said, drinking the potion immediately. "We had better follow the bandit at once. He will heal himself, too, and no doubt find another weapon." She set off for the hut, now walking without a limp, swinging her sword to get her arm working freely again after the paralysis.

They entered the hut cautiously, Lydia taking the lead, Elisif expecting that they would be attacked immediately. The bandit chief wasn't lurking beside the door, however, but was at the furthest corner of the hut bending over to unlock a trapdoor set into the floor. He straightened up as they came in, snatched up a sword that lay on a bench beside him, and faced them.

A large and heavy wooden table took up much of the floor within the hut and meant that they could not approach him side by side. Lydia took the direct route, to the left of the table, and Elisif went around the right of the table to come at the bandit from his left-hand side. She struck out at him; he was ideally positioned to interpose his shield against her blows but this meant that he could defend against Lydia only with his sword. With his attention necessarily split between two attackers, and with no room to maneuver, he was at a severe disadvantage.

After a brief exchange of blows Lydia swept his sword aside with her shield and thrust at his throat. In desperation he brought his shield around to his front to stop Lydia's blade just short of piercing his jugular. In doing so he left himself wide open to Elisif and, although his armor covered most of his vulnerable areas, the back of his upper arm was unprotected and now faced Elisif. She slashed through the muscle, crippling him for a second time, and his shield-arm flopped uselessly to his side. Lydia took immediate advantage and drove her blade up under the bandit's chin, through the roof of his mouth, and into his brain.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

The trapdoor in the hut opened into a cave beneath the encampment. Elisif had thought there might be prisoners confined there but it proved to be only the bandit leader's private hideaway and emergency escape route. Half of the cavern was under water and the presence of a boat tied up at a crude wooden jetty gave away that the water led out to the river. If they had been slower to follow the bandit chief into the hut he would have had gone through the trapdoor, down the ladder, and into the boat to make his escape.

It would have been a well-funded escape, too. There was some coin stashed in the cave, although not a great amount, but Elisif discovered a journal tucked away under a rotted and worthless larger book. In the journal the bandit chief had recorded his troubles with the gang, his suspicions that two of the stronger members were separately planning mutinies to overthrow him and take his place, and his decision to stash some of the gang's more valuable items of loot where he could recover it when he deserted them. And, handily, where he had hidden that loot.

It seemed slightly odd to Elisif that the bandit leader had bothered to write down that information. It didn't seem the sort of thing you'd forget. Was he planning to write his memoirs for publication? 'Confessions of a Bandit Chieftain'? Or was it a set-up, to get posthumous revenge if his lieutenants did stab him in the back and then discovered the journal, and the 'treasure chest' would be rigged with a lethal trap? Certainly the journal hadn't been particularly well hidden.

Elisif and Lydia took the boat out through a tunnel, emerging on the Karth river, and crossed to the small island described in the bandit leader's notes. There they found his treasure chest, sunk into the ground, and examined it thoroughly for traps. There were none. The lock was complex, and Elisif would never have been able to pick it, but the trapdoor key opened it. Inside was a sack containing pieces of jewelry, gems, a spell tome, a few sacks of coin, and a set of hide bracers that didn't seem to fit in with the small, but high value, other items. Elisif guessed that the bracers were enchanted. She would look into that later, and also check out the jewelry and any valuables that might remain in the bandit camp, but she had something else to do first.

The little island was a tranquil spot, bright with flowers, and would make an ideal spot for a burial. The water that surrounded it would deter sabre cats from trying to dig up a body. If the treasure chest was pulled from the ground it would leave a hole that was half-way to being a ready-dug grave. Hadvar could rest there in peace.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Elisif stumbled through a recitation of what she could remember of the traditional funeral rites. She had heard them often enough but mostly at times when she had been in no condition to take notice of the details.

"You were the first to call me High Queen, even before Kaie," she finished. "I will try to prove worthy of your belief in me. Farewell, Hadvar of Riverwood, may you rest in Sovngarde." Tears began to trickle down her cheeks as she tipped the first shovelful of earth into the grave.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

The road to the gates of Solitude ran up a steep incline. Elisif felt an odd mingling of emotions as she walked up the slope. Some apprehension at the thought of being back in the company of the people who, despite her status, treated her almost as an annoying child; some grief over the fate of Hadvar; and a fair helping of pride, as she knew she had done well against the dragon and against the bandits. She had earned the respect of Kaie, Balgruuf, Irileth, a good few of the Whiterun Guard, and Lydia. Now she had to gain the respect of General Tullius, Falk Firebeard, Sybille Stentor, and her Thanes – hopefully without having to fight another dragon or more bandits.

"You wear the armor of a brigand," a patrolling guard remarked, glowering at Elisif. "Best not cause any trouble on my watch."

It didn't surprise Elisif that the guard hadn't recognized her. She had never had all that much contact with members of the Haafingar Guard, even when she had been just the daughter of a Thane rather than Queen or Jarl, and her current attire was very different from anything she had worn in those roles. She had replaced her usual copper and ruby circlet with a gold and emerald Circlet of Minor Archery from the bandit chief's chest, she was of course wearing the 'brigand-style' studded leather armor plus Hide Bracers of Minor Wielding (also from the chest), and she was bedecked with weapons. A bow and quiver were slung at her back and three swords hung from her belt. Altogether she looked the very model of an adventurer.

They had stayed the night in Dragon Bridge, because the time they had spent at the bandit camp meant they would not have been able to reach Solitude before nightfall, and no-one there had recognized Elisif either. She had refrained from enlightening them, ordered Lydia to stay silent on the matter, and as a result she had learned some interesting – if unflattering – things about the way she was regarded by the common people. Very pretty, and it was a shame that she had been killed, but ineffectual and weak. Maybe the new Elisif might be able to change their minds…

The noon bell was ringing as they passed through the gates and entered the city. To her surprise Elisif found that the plaza beyond the gates was crowded with people. Elisif's first thought was that she had not been as unrecognized in Dragon Bridge as she had thought, and word of her safe return had reached Solitude ahead of her, but she soon realized that this was no Welcome Home gathering.

It was a public execution.

Elisif pushed her way through the crowd, attracting hostile looks and some muttered curses, until she had a clear view of the raised terrace that ran along the north wall of the plaza. An executioner's block had been set up there, Ahtar the Headsman stood beside it with his great axe at his side, and Captain Aldis of the Guard was there looking out at the crowd. Three guards were hustling a bound prisoner in the direction of the block.

"Citizens," Aldis began, "sentence on the traitor has been passed and now you shall see justice administered."

Closer at hand Elisif heard a child's anguished voice. "They can't hurt Uncle Roggvir! Tell them he didn't do it!"

Elisif thrust herself past Taarie from the Radiant Raiment clothing store, one of the few people she recognized in the throng, and reached the front of the crowd. "Captain Aldis!" Elisif shouted. "What in Oblivion is going on here?"

"It's an execution," Aldis growled. "Are you blind, woman?" It was obvious that he had no idea of her identity. Others were less oblivious.

"Jarl Elisif!" Taarie exclaimed. "You're alive!" Several other people in the crowd voiced similar comments.

"Who authorized this?" Elisif asked sharply. "I signed no death warrant."

" _You_ signed no… Jarl Elisif?" The captain's jaw dropped and his eyebrows shot up. "Jarl Elisif! We were informed that you had perished."

"Well, I didn't," Elisif said. "It was a near-run thing but, thanks to a brave Legionary and the Dragonborn, I escaped the dragon and the Stormcloaks." She glanced up at the sky; it had occurred to her that the dragon at Helgen had turned up just as the executions began. Could it have been attracted by them? The crowd was now making enough noise that she wouldn't hear any of those distant roars that had heralded its approach at Helgen. She had wanted to stop the execution anyway and now she had a compelling reason. Even a small chance that the dragon might turn up was too big a risk. And aside from that… "Answer me, Captain Aldis. Who usurped my authority and ordered this execution?"

"Jarl Erikur," Aldis revealed. "Uh, that is, interim Jarl Erikur."

"Jarl _Erikur_? _Jarl_ Erikur?" Elisif felt fury rise within her. "He had no right. How dare he!"

"I… uh, they said… I…" Aldis stumbled on his words and halted before he had said anything coherent. His expression showed unhappiness and uncertainty. Elisif deduced that he had no idea how it was that Erikur had assumed the position of Jarl and that Aldis, like a good soldier, had simply gone along with his orders without question.

"There is only one Jarl of Solitude," Elisif said, "and that's me. Return Roggvir to the cells." She recognized the prisoner now; the gate-guard who had opened the city gates for Ulfric Stormcloak as he fled the city after killing Torygg. Not one of her favorite people, and she was all in favor of him receiving some punishment for his dereliction of duty, but did it merit execution? She didn't think so. The time he had spent in prison, awaiting execution, might be enough of a punishment in itself; she'd make a final decision later. "The ordinary prison cells," she ordered, "not the condemned cell. And, when you get to the castle, tell General Tullius that I'm back."

"As you command, Jarl Elisif," Aldis responded, and he gave the appropriate orders to the guards and the executioner. They led Roggvir away, a little more gently than the way they had frog-marched him up toward the execution block, and they passed close by Elisif as she started to extricate herself from the crowd.

"I thank you for your mercy, Jarl Elisif," Roggvir called out.

Elisif had to take a deep breath to calm herself before she could reply. At his trial Roggvir had insisted that there had been no murder when Ulfric killed Torygg; that it had been a duel in accordance with the ancient traditions of the Nords. Elisif's opinion was diametrically opposed. It wouldn't have been a fair fight anyway, a veteran warrior who had fought in two wars and many individual combats versus a young man with less experience of real combat than Elisif herself had acquired by now, but Ulfric hadn't been content with that advantage. He had used the Voice against Torygg and given him no chance at all. The equivalent of using a sword in a fist-fight. How could it not be murder? But Roggvir's part in it had been small and, probably, irrelevant. If he hadn't opened the gate for Ulfric no doubt the Stormcloak Jarl would have Shouted him out of the way and opened it for himself.

"Not mercy, but justice," Elisif said. She had intended to say more but then realized that the short phrase said all that needed to be said. The brevity would make it memorable and give it more impact. She left it at that and resumed her progress out of the crowd. Quite a few people spoke to her, some saying that they were glad she was back and others trying to ask questions, but she responded only with smiles and the briefest possible acknowledgements.

Lydia, following behind, was being asked just as many questions. "No, I'm not the Dragonborn," Elisif heard her say. "She's a Breton girl. A Reachwoman."

"A Reachwoman?" The speaker was behind Elisif and not a voice she knew. "That's impossible! The Divines would never bestow that power on one of those savages. Only a true Nord can be the Dragonborn."

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"I must confess I am rather surprised to find that this era's Dragonborn is a Reachwoman," Master Arngeir told Kaie, "but who am I to question the will of the Divines? They have chosen you and so we of the Greybeards shall play our part. Without training, you have already taken the first steps toward projecting your Voice into a Thu'um, a Shout. Now let us see if you are willing and able to learn."

"I am willing," Kaie said, "but I hope this will not take too long. Elisif _Frenhines_ – Jarl Elisif – has asked me to join her in Solitude as soon as possible."

"Normally it would take years of study and meditation," Arngeir said, "but the Dragonborn is different. Your dragon blood gives you an inbuilt ability to learn Words of Power. We should be able to teach you enough to set you upon your path in only a few hours. First, Master Einarth will teach you 'Ro', the second Word in Unrelenting Force…"

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Elisif entered the Blue Palace at a fast walk, passed through the waiting room without slowing, and made straight for the stairs. As she climbed them she could hear raised voices in the throne room. She paused for a moment to listen.

"You have no right, Erikur!" Falk Firebeard was saying. "Your position is merely a temporary measure until Jarl Elisif's fate is confirmed. It is beyond your power to appoint your own Steward and Thanes."

"Don't be a fool, Firebeard," Erikur replied, a sneer evident in his voice. "Solitude has been paralyzed by its so-called ruler's inactivity for far too long. It is long past time that someone with a real head for business took charge."

Elisif didn't delay any longer but went up the rest of the stairs almost at a charge. She burst into the throne room and saw Erikur sitting on her throne. Fury filled her.

"Get off my throne!" she snarled.

"El – Jarl Elisif!" Falk Firebeard cried. "You're alive!"

"I had noticed," Elisif said, and turned her attention back to Erikur. "Get off my throne, Erikur. Now!"

"Ah, Elisif, you have returned," Erikur greeted her, with a smile that radiated insincerity. "We had heard that you had been slain. It is a great relief to find that the report was in error."

"You are still sitting on my throne," Elisif said, in icy tones. "Lydia, move him."

Lydia stepped forward, glaring at the Thane, and Erikur raised his hands. "There is no need for crude physicality," he said, standing up. "Really, Elisif, you're overreacting."

"That's _Jarl_ Elisif to you," Elisif snapped. She turned away from Erikur. "Steward Falk," she said, "Why is it that everyone thought I was dead?"

"As the Stormcloak survivors were escaping from Helgen Ulfric Stormcloak shouted out that they had killed the 'pretender Queen'," Falk explained. "Bolgeir was dead, and you were last seen in the company of only a single Legionary, and so they believed Ulfric's claim."

"And it didn't occur to anyone that Ulfric might just be trying to demoralize the Legion?" It was possible that Ulfric genuinely believed that Elisif had died when she leapt from the tower but she wasn't inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. "I didn't have just Hadvar with me. A young Reachwoman was with us and she's a skilled warrior. We fought several Stormcloaks but we lived and they didn't."

"Oh, really, El- Jarl Elisif," Erikur commented, "surely you don't expect us to believe that you actually fought?"

In the past Elisif had cringed before Erikur's superior, patronizing, speeches but now she was too angry to back down. "Would you like a demonstration?" she growled, her hand going to the hilt of her Skyforge sword.

Erikur backed away toward Melaran, the Altmer mage who served as his bodyguard, and held up a hand. "Now, now, Jarl Elisif, there's no need to be like that," he said. "I was merely surprised by your claim. You'd never even handled a sword before."

"When the alternative is being captured or killed, you learn fast," Elisif said. "I stumbled through the fights in Helgen on sheer instinct but when we made it to Whiterun I had some proper instruction. It paid off when Lydia and I had to fight bandits on our way to Solitude."

"I… see," Erikur said. "And this young lady would be… Lydia?"

"I am," Lydia confirmed. "I was trained as a Housecarl in Whiterun. Jarl Balgruuf assigned me to Jarl Elisif when he heard that Bolgeir Bearclaw had been killed in Helgen. He gave me strict instructions as to how I should treat anyone who poses a threat to Jarl Elisif's life. Kill them. And that was before Jarl Elisif saved _my_ life." Her steely tones gave a clear warning to all who heard and it was plain to see that Erikur was thrown off-balance.

Elisif was quick to take advantage. "Just how is it that you managed to get yourself appointed as _temporary_ Jarl, Erikur? When the only thing to indicate that I might be dead was a claim made by the leader of our enemies? It wouldn't have been hard to find me. I wasn't hiding, I was staying with Jarl Balgruuf in Whiterun and everyone there knew it. So why such haste?"

"Ah, you see, some of Solitude's prominent tradespeople were… anxious about Solitude being left… leaderless in such troubled times," Erikur said, "and presented a petition to General Tullius requesting that he approve the appointment of an… interim Jarl until your fate was known for certain. They put my name forward, General Tullius agreed, and I could hardly refuse."

"And, of course, it is pure coincidence that those 'prominent tradespeople' were those who rent their premises from you," Thane Bryling put in.

"What? Yes, it is," Erikur claimed.

Elisif didn't believe him any more than Bryling did. She was sure that Tullius had agreed to the proposal simply to shut him up and get rid of him. It had never worked for her as Tullius usually just dismissed her suggestions out of hand and she hadn't had the confidence to press her case. Now, however, she was in no mood to be brushed aside so lightly. First, though, she had to finish putting Erikur in his place.

"Why did you order Roggvir's execution?" Elisif asked. "It must have been one of the first things you did. Why so urgent?"

"He was just taking up space in the prison," Erikur said, "being fed and incurring expense for no good reason. He'd been in there for two months and you still hadn't done anything about him. I wanted to make it clear that I could act decisively." The 'unlike you' wasn't voiced but Elisif understood it perfectly.

"You idiot," Elisif said, keeping her voice calm. "Didn't you hear what happened at Helgen? Apart from the inaccurate report of my death, that is."

"They say a dragon attacked," Erikur said, "although that's hard to believe."

"Yes, a dragon attacked," Elisif said, her voice beginning to rise, "the moment the first of the Stormcloaks went to the block! It might be coincidence but it might be that the executions attracted the creature. I don't want to risk bringing it to Solitude! There will be no more executions in this city as long as there are dragons around. Do you understand?"

"Come now, Elisif, don't you think you're being a little… paranoid?"

Elisif extended her index finger, reached out, and prodded Erikur in the chest. "I don't care!" she snapped. "Even if there is only one chance in a hundred that executions attract dragons it is not worth taking the risk. No executions, and that's final!" She turned to her Steward. "Falk, I want you to arrange measures to deal with fires in Solitude. Water buckets throughout the city, perhaps brooms to beat out fires, and so on."

"That would be a waste of effort. The lazy townspeople will take the water to save them the trouble of going to the well," Erikur said.

"If they do, and their houses burn down, it will be their own fault," Elisif said, "but it is my duty as Jarl to provide what is necessary. Tell your tenants not to touch the fire buckets – unless, that is, you want to lose your properties."

"Oh, very well," Erikur said.

"It shall be as you command, my Jarl," Falk said. "It is a wise precaution that could save lives and dwellings."

"Thank you," Elisif said. "Now, I need something to eat. After that I'll go to Castle Dour and speak to General Tullius."

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"I want to have Hadvar's sword returned to his family," Elisif told the general. "I don't know if he has living parents but his uncle is Alvor, the blacksmith in Riverwood, and he would know. I've written a letter to go with the sword and there needs to be one from the Legion too. And, of course, a medal or a posthumous commendation."

Tullius barely glanced up from the map he was leaning over. "Yes, of course. See to it, Legate Rikke."

"Yes, General," Rikke responded. "Hadvar was a true hero in the finest traditions of the Legion. I shall make sure he is acknowledged accordingly."

"Thank you, Legate Rikke," Elisif said, smiling at the Legion's second-in-command. She turned back to Tullius. "There is another matter about which I must speak to you. A Stormcloak named Thorald Gray-Mane was taken prisoner by the Legion. I want him released."

"What?" Tullius stood up straight and frowned at Elisif. "Why would you want a Stormcloak released?"

"I'm hoping to sway public opinion in Whiterun enough that Jarl Balgruuf will feel free to declare for the Empire," Elisif said. "Returning Thorald to the Gray-Mane family will make them less hostile. I'm sure the Stormcloaks will have a Legion prisoner they could release in exchange."

"Humph. The Gray-Mane prisoner was handed over to the Thalmor," Tullius said. "They have him in Northwatch Keep. Getting them to give him back won't be easy. Are you sure it's worth the effort?"

"How much would Whiterun declaring for the Empire be worth?" Elisif asked. "Balgruuf was a close friend of my father and he's like an uncle to me. He doesn't trust Ulfric. The only thing stopping him from openly joining my side is the opposition of the Gray-Manes and their allies. If we can weaken that…"

"Oh, very well," Tullius said, with a sigh. "I'll write out an order to get him released into our custody. Once we have him I'll get him traded for one of our people. It shouldn't take too long. One of our patrols was ambushed by Stormcloaks recently and I am fairly sure they took prisoners."

"Make sure he knows who to thank," Elisif said. "The whole point is to make the Gray-Manes feel that they owe me something." She wasn't going to mention that she owed the Gray-Manes for the gift of a Skyforge sword.

Tullius raised his eyebrows. "You are acquiring some political skills," he said. "That is a… pleasing development."

It would have been nice, Elisif thought, if someone had thought to teach them to her earlier. "I have used them elsewhere," she said. "Don't take any military action against the Forsworn."

"So, that girl in Helgen was one of the Forsworn," Tullius said. "I suspected as much."

"Yes, she is," Elisif confirmed, "but she saved my life and has become my friend. She is loyal to me and calls me Queen. I'm hoping to get the Forsworn to ally with the Legion against the Stormcloaks. As long as we don't attack them and ruin everything."

"Hmm," Tullius mused. "They have taken over Fort Sungard and I was having difficulty working out what forces we could spare to drive them out. If they could be persuaded to let Imperial forces, and ordinary travelers, pass by without hindrance, and attack only Stormcloaks, there would be no need to bother. We don't have the spare manpower to station a full garrison there anyway. Can you arrange that?"

"Not immediately," Elisif admitted. "I'll have to wait for Kaie to come to Solitude. She had to go to High Hrothgar first but she's promised to join me here as soon as she could."

"High Hrothgar?" Rikke put in. "Does that mean that she's… the Dragonborn?"

"She is," Elisif confirmed. "We found that out while we were in Whiterun and then the Greybeards summoned her to High Hrothgar. Hopefully they won't keep her too long."

"A Forsworn Dragonborn," Rikke said, shaking her head. "I would never have believed it. The Divines must have a sense of humor."

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"Have you heard?" the Rift guardsman said. "There has been another dragon attack."

"The one at Whiterun?" Jenassa asked. "We know. We were there."

The guard shook his head. "No, this was in the Rift, south of here," he said. "A farm was burnt to the ground and the whole family killed. They say the dragon is nesting, now, at Autumnwatch Tower." He tilted his head slightly and looked the two women over. "You look like a pair of adventurers," he said, "and I heard from Wilhelm that you cleared the ghost out of Shroud Heath Barrow. I think you'll be interested to hear that Jarl Laila Law-Giver has decreed that slaying the dragon will be rewarded with a bounty of a thousand septims."

Kaie was tempted; she had found another Word Wall in the barrow and now had five Words of Power in her mind that she couldn't use without absorbing the souls of dying dragons. The trouble was that she didn't believe slaying a dragon was within the capabilities of herself and Jenassa, at least not with their present weaponry and without back-up, and it would have to wait. "Sorry, we have to travel north," she told the guard. "Maybe later."

The Greybeards had given her the task of retrieving an artefact, the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller, from the ancient ruin of Ustengrav in Hjaalmarch Hold. When she returned with it they would give her more training, which no doubt would be very useful, but it wasn't her top priority. That remained rejoining Elisif. She would go to Solitude first and only after that would she cross the Karth River estuary and head for Ustengrav.

Although, on second thoughts, perhaps Solitude shouldn't be her first stop. It might be better to make a brief side-trip to Serpents' Bluff Redoubt so that she could send messages to her mother, to Drascua, and to Nepos the Nose. It would delay her arrival at Solitude only by a few hours, or perhaps a day at most, and that couldn't possibly matter.

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Elisif frowned as she studied ' _Songs of Skyrim_ '. It was the only source she had been able to find that mentioned the dragon language, and the translation of the ancient song in the book didn't contain all the words she needed. The dragon at the Western Watchtower had spoken to her and said ' _Hi los ni Dovahkiin_ ', and then ' _Dir ko maar, joor!_ ' The second sentence was hopeless. The only word from it that she could find in the song was ' _ko_ ', which meant 'the', and that was no help whatsoever. She had had more success with the first sentence; it seemed to read 'You are – something – the Dragonborn'. The only word she could think of to fill in the blank was 'not'. 'You are not the Dragonborn'. And the dragon had sounded… surprised.

Did that mean that it had thought that she _was_ the Dragonborn? If so, why? Had the big black dragon at Helgen been able to sense that a Dragonborn was present and, like Jarl Balgruuf when she had returned from the Western Watchtower, jumped to the conclusion that it was Elisif? And had the big one sent the smaller one to intercept the carriage on the road as a deliberate attempt to get rid of her? If that was the case then that increased the risk of a dragon attacking Solitude. However, although reports of more dragon attacks had come in, they had all been down in the south of Skyrim. Perhaps the dragon had realized its error. At least the fire-fighting measures were in place if a dragon did attack.

"Jarl Elisif," Falk Firebeard called, "a petitioner seeks audience."

"I'll be there in a moment," Elisif called in reply. She laid down the book, stood up, and made sure that her gown was straight. The arrow hole had been repaired, and the blood cleaned off, and it was still her favorite garment. Now, however, she wore it together with the Bracers of Minor Wielding and her Skyforge sword was belted at her side. She left her room, Lydia following behind her as always, and entered the throne room.

"You may approach the throne," Falk told the visitor, as Elisif sat down.

The petitioner was an unremarkable man in the garb of a farmer. Elisif had a vague feeling that she'd seen him somewhere before but couldn't place him. The farmer bowed his head as he addressed her. "Thank you for seeing me, Jarl Elisif," he said. "I am Varnius Junius, of Dragon Bridge, and I come seeking protection for our town."

"I shall do what I can," Elisif said. "What danger threatens Dragon Bridge?"

"It is Wolfskull Cave," Varnius answered. "There are strange noises and lights coming from it, and Clinton Lylvieve says he saw a skeleton walking at the mouth of the cave, and we fear unnatural magics are being practiced there." He looked directly at Elisif's face, for the first time since the audience began, and his eyes widened.

"You… you were in Dragon Bridge, just a few days ago," Varnius said, almost stammering. "We didn't recognize you as our Jarl and thought you were a mercenary adventurer. I may have spoken disrespectfully and I humbly apologize."

"You described me as 'ineffectual', if I recall correctly," Elisif said, and Varnius flushed red. Elisif smiled at him. "It was a valid criticism and I am not offended. I had allowed myself to sink too deeply into my grief and was neglecting my duties. I assure you it will not happen again. I will do all in my power to ensure that Haafingar's people will always be safe under my rule. Unnatural magics at Wolfskull Cave, you say?"

"Indeed, my Jarl," Varnius confirmed. "I ask that you send someone to investigate."

The Court Wizard, Sybille Stentor, sniffed audibly. "Your Eminence," she said, "my scrying has suggested nothing in the area. Dragon Bridge is under Imperial control. This is likely superstitious nonsense. If there is anything there it is probably just some bandits."

"Doesn't Wolfskull Cave have some connection with Potema the Wolf Queen?" Elisif asked.

"It does," said Falk. "Five hundred years ago she used it for dark rituals and that is how it got its name. There are rumors that it is haunted but, as Sybille says, that is likely to be just superstition."

"It sounds like the kind of place that would attract necromancers," Elisif said. "Dragon Bridge itself is probably safe for the time being. There is a Penitus Oculatus outpost there and, although when I passed through Dragon Bridge what I saw of them did not impress me, I am sure they would not just stand by if the town was attacked. We do need to have the cave investigated, though. Steward Falk, how many of the Guard could we spare?"

Falk winced. "None, unless we leave some posts unfilled," he admitted. "General Tullius asked for all our reserves to be transferred to the Legion and Erikur agreed. Captain Aldiss called for volunteers and there were so many that he could pick and choose. We now have no spare guards at all."

Elisif grimaced. No doubt, she thought, the guards had volunteered for the Legion because they didn't want to serve in a Solitude run by Erikur. She couldn't blame them but she could blame Erikur. Tullius had always asked for more from Solitude; more men, more supplies, more financial contributions, and Elisif, even when she had been almost catatonic with grief, had had the sense to resist and bargain him down to more realistic levels. Erikur, presumably to solidify Tullius' support for his position, had simply given him what he'd wanted and it had left Solitude in a bad position. No extra guards to assign to Dragon Bridge, none to send to check out the cave, and the bare minimum necessary for routine duties.

"Are there mercenaries or adventurers, who we could hire, currently in Solitude?" Elisif asked Falk.

"A spellsword named Belrand is staying at the Winking Skeever," Falk answered. "He is said to be competent. I know of no others."

Elisif pursed her lips as she considered her options. Kaie would have been the ideal agent for the mission but she hadn't arrived in Solitude yet; enough time had passed for the journey both ways, by now, but Elisif had no way of knowing how long the Greybeards would keep the Dragonborn. Kaie might arrive that evening or it might not be for a week. Elisif would have to look for an alternative.

Hiring the spellsword to check out Wolfskull Cave would be the easiest course but perhaps not the best one. A lone adventurer could fall even to weak enemies with just one piece of bad luck at the wrong time. Her encounter with the bandits had made that clear; alone either her or Lydia would have been killed, or worse, but together they had come through almost unscathed. She wasn't going to send this Belrand, competent or not, to Wolfskull Cave by himself. But who could go with him? Jordis the Sword-Maiden, Housecarl in training, perhaps? No, if Lydia decided to return to Whiterun Elisif would need Jordis to take over the Housecarl position. There had to be someone… else…

"I shall go in person," Elisif declared. "I will take Lydia, of course, and we shall hire Belrand to accompany us."

"What?" Falk's jaw dropped. "Jarl Elisif! You cannot be serious. You are too important to Solitude for you to risk your life."

"Come now, Firebeard, there is unlikely to be any danger," Erikur said. "Perhaps a rogue necromancer trying to salvage something from the ruins, at the worst, and more likely just a couple of bandits with the 'strange lights' being merely a cooking fire. The lovely Lydia, and the veteran Belrand, will be able to handle it with no risk to El- Jarl Elisif."

Lydia glared at him. "Jarl Elisif can handle herself," she said. "She saved my life at Robbers' Gorge. I will fight at her side, not act as a… nursemaid. And do not call me 'the lovely Lydia' again or I will remove a body part you will sorely miss."

Erikur winced and took a step back. His bodyguard Melaran opened his mouth, as if to protest, but on meeting Lydia's steely gaze he closed his mouth without speaking. A smile spread across Thane Bryling's face and she seemed to be suppressing laughter.

"Falk," Elisif said, dropping the overly formal 'Steward', "you are in charge until I return. I have every confidence that you will handle everything with the same competence you have displayed in the past. If I return and find that… someone… has usurped my position with some nonsense about an 'interim Jarl' being required… I will be most displeased."

Erikur scowled but remained silent.

"I am expecting my friend Kaie, with her Housecarl Jenassa, to arrive shortly," Elisif went on. "If I am not back before then I expect her to be made welcome… or, again, I will be most displeased. She may wish to join me at Wolfskull Cave. If so, inform her that I will be going there by the southern road, toward Dragon Bridge, and then turning north along the path leading past the old Temple of Meridia. I shall return the same way, so that there is less chance of us missing each other upon the road."

"I will inform her, as you ask," Falk promised, "and quarter her and her Housecarl in the guest accommodation if she decides to stay and wait for you."

"Thank you, Falk," Elisif said. "Have Jordis act as your Housecarl while I am away. You might need protection and she could use the experience." She stood up. "I am going to don my armor, take up the Shield of Solitude," she said, "and then I have to make a stop at Castle Dour." An idea had come to her, about someone else that she could recruit for the mission, but she wanted to discuss it with Lydia, away from the Thanes, before she put it into practice. "After that I shall call at the Winking Skeever, to hire the spellsword Belrand, and then we shall be off to Wolfskull Cave."

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"I had intended to have you set free on the day of the Burning of King Olaf festival," Elisif told Roggvir, "but now I have to investigate possible necromancers at Wolfskull Cave. I have no idea if I'll be facing a single novice, a full coven led by a master, or something in between. I want to have as much back-up as possible when I go there. You are a trained guardsman. If you agree to join my expedition, and serve me faithfully, you will be released immediately. Otherwise you'll have to wait until next month."

"You intervened to save me when I was on my way to the execution block," Roggvir said. "I will be glad to pledge my life to your service, Jarl Elisif."

"Excellent," Elisif said. "I will order your release immediately and then see that you are suitably equipped." Roggvir looked somewhat gaunt, not surprisingly after being in prison for over two months, and he would be well below the fitness levels expected of a guardsman. His combat skills would not be at their sharpest. Even so a Solitude guard, despite being below par physically and out of practice, should be more than capable of dealing with the average bandit, or with spell-casters if he could get into close quarters, and Elisif was confident that Roggvir would be an asset.

She was less confident, after going into the Winking Skeever, that Belrand would be an asset. The mercenary spellsword was an unprepossessing figure, with a severely receding hairline and clad in a dented iron cuirass, with a plain iron sword belted at his hip. He spoke like a true warrior, however.

"I fight with both blade and spell," Belrand declared. "You might say I'm equipped to handle nearly any threat. So, shall we talk price?"

Elisif decided to interview him, to assess his worth, before making a decision. And, as it was obvious that Roggvir was in dire need of a good meal, that interview would be conducted over lunch.

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Erikur picked at his meal in a desultory fashion as he considered what he could do about Elisif. His ploy to get himself installed as 'interim Jarl' had seemed such a good idea at the time but all it had achieved was to infuriate the real Jarl. In the past that wouldn't have mattered, an infuriated Elisif had carried the same amount of menace as a mildly annoyed chicken, but the new Elisif who had returned from Helgen was a very different proposition. Erikur had found himself sidelined, his suggestions ignored, and that horrible Whiterun woman who acted as Elisif's personal attack dog had even threatened him with mutilation! His political influence in Solitude was almost nil and would remain so… unless Elisif could be removed somehow. Elisif didn't understand business, or the necessities of politics, and she had to go. It was for the good of Solitude… or, at least, for Erikur, and as far as he was concerned the two were synonymous.

But how to get rid of her? He had hoped that he'd be able to persuade the grieving widow to step down, after which maneuvering himself into the position of Jarl would have been child's play, but Elisif's new attitude made it clear that the idea was a pipe dream. A subtle coup no longer seemed viable; Falk and Bryling both hated him, General Tullius seemed to have acquired a new respect for Elisif, and the moronic populace had taken the rash young woman to their hearts since she had started wandering around with a sword at her waist. Violence wasn't Erikur's style and would have been futile anyway; he no longer felt confident that he could beat Elisif if he challenged her face-to-face and any less honorable attack would result in Lydia cutting him to pieces. Approaching the Dark Brotherhood was an option but only as a last resort. Elisif's foolhardy idea of rushing off to explore a cave in person, as if she was nothing more than a mercenary adventurer, opened up an alternative way of getting rid of her.

Somewhere not far from Solitude was a secret Stormcloak outpost. Erikur didn't know where, although he suspected it was relatively close to the road to Dragon Bridge, but he had contacts who could get in touch. The Stormcloaks would be interested to find out about Elisif's rash venture and that she would be accompanied only by one Housecarl and an over-the-hill mercenary hireling. He knew where she was going and the route she was taking, although it was probably too late for that to be useful, and more importantly that she would be returning the same way. The Stormcloaks might even pay him for the information, which would be a nice bonus, but the important thing was that they would ensure that the annoying young woman didn't make it back to Solitude.

Erikur pushed away his plate, rose from the table, and gestured to summon Melaran. It was time to take decisive action.


	5. Come Up Screaming

**Chapter Five: Come Up Screaming**

As they crossed the snow-covered ground, and approached the entrance to Wolfskull Cave, two walking skeletons came to meet them. One was armed with sword and shield, the other wielded a battle-axe. Lydia aimed her bow, and Belrand readied a spell, but Roggvir spoke up to stop them.

"Let me face one," he said. "I need the practice, after so long in a cell."

"I could do with more practice, too," Elisif said. Skeletons were not formidable opponents, at least according to the stories, and fighting one seemed like a good way to test herself before facing something worse.

"Remember to use the edge, not the point," Lydia said.

"I'll take the axe-wielder," said Roggvir, and charged.

Elisif advanced to intercept the other and it struck out at her with its sword. She blocked with the Shield of Solitude, its strong enchantments making it easy to deflect the blow, and retaliated with a cut to the legs that slipped under the skeleton's shield. Her Skyforge blade cleaved through the thigh-bones, the skeleton fell, and it disintegrated into a pile of unconnected bones as it hit the ground.

Roggvir dealt with the other skeleton just as easily. "I haven't forgotten how to fight," he said, with a grin. "Good to know."

"That sword is better than mine," Belrand said, pointing at the weapon dropped by Elisif's foe, and he picked it up and tossed his old iron blade down onto the pile of bones. A nightshade plant was growing nearby, close to the rock face and sheltered from the snow, and he detoured to pluck the flowers. "You can make some valuable potions with these," he explained, as he packed them away in his pouch, "and if I helped myself to the ones growing outside the Hall of the Dead it wouldn't endear me to Styrr. At my age, in my profession, I'd rather stay on the good side of the Priests of Arkay."

He was old for a mercenary; Elisif hadn't seen all that many but all the others she had encountered had been much younger. By the time they reached his age, she guessed, most mercenaries either had died or had retired to take up safer, more sedentary, occupations. He seemed fit enough, however, and had the experience to compensate for lack of youthful vigor. Elisif felt he would do well enough and she was happy for him to take the lead, alongside Lydia, as the party of four entered the cave mouth.

The presence of the skeletons outside wasn't a definite guarantee that there was something going on in Wolfskull Cave. They might even have been lurking since Potema's time, Elisif thought, as she had no idea how long such undead beings remained active after being conjured. Unlikely, as she'd never heard anything about wandering skeletons in the area before, but just barely possible. The answer would have to be found deeper inside.

She had expected that it would be pitch dark, once they got far enough in to be out of the daylight, and she had a torch ready to light. To her surprise she found that there were burning torches in sconces fastened to the cavern walls and lit lanterns hanging from the ceiling. Not many, and quite far apart, but enough to provide perfectly adequate illumination.

This was proof that the cave was occupied. Someone had to be replacing the torches, when they burnt out, and refilling the oil in the lanterns. It didn't prove that the cave's occupants had a nefarious purpose. It could be that a reclusive mage was using the place as a secluded place to research spells and enchantments away from the distractions of civilization, without any evil intent. Or, Elisif speculated after finding a pile of discarded empty wine bottles, youths and maidens might be hiding out to drink, and conduct illicit romances, away from their parents. The skeletons guarding the entrance made that scenario unlikely, she had to admit, and when the party came upon a draugr patrolling the passageway she ruled it out entirely. The harmless but anti-social mage remained a possibility but necromancers, or bandits with at least one necromancer among them, were much more likely.

Elisif had never seen a draugr before. The shambling, leathery-skinned, corpse was a hideous sight but nothing like as scary as a dragon. She joined the others in attacking the undead warrior and the four warriors hacked the draugr apart in seconds. Not silently, unfortunately, and two necromancers came running to investigate the disturbance. They attacked with Frostbite spells and Ice Spikes. Against the four cold-resistant Nords the spells lacked their full deadly effect but did slow them down and hurt them. Belrand, who protected himself with a Ward spell, and Elisif, who benefitted from the magic-resistance enchantments on the Shield of Solitude, were least affected and fell on the mages with their swords.

Elisif ran one of the necromancers through and, as she withdrew her sword and saw the mage fall dead, realized to her horror that the necromancer was a young and pretty woman. The other necromancer, a male Bosmer, back-pedaled away from Belrand and retreated into a large chamber in which a cooking fire burned. The floor was littered with empty wine bottles and the smell of roasting meat and grilling leeks permeated the air. The necromancers had been making themselves comfortable while they did whatever it was they were doing… but there was no time to think about that now.

A door on the far side of the chamber burst open and a draugr strode in, much bigger and more heavily armored than the first, followed by another necromancer. Both wasted no time in attacking with spells and the Bosmer, no longer being pressed hard by Belrand, was able to cast a new spell. The dead woman got to her feet and began to spray Lydia with Frostbite once more. Elisif slipped on one of the bottles underfoot and fell on her backside. The big draugr raised a war-axe in one hand, keeping its spell going with the other, and brought the axe down in a powerful blow aimed at Elisif's head.

She brought up the Shield of Solitude and blocked the strike. With a lesser shield she might not have managed but this one bore enchantments that made it easy for even a novice to use effectively. And her Skyforge sword gave her an advantage, too; she lashed the blade across and chopped one of the draugr's legs out from under it. What she might lack in skill she made up for in quality of weaponry. The crippled draugr was easy for her to finish off, Roggvir killed the reanimated mage for a second time, Belrand managed to close with the Bosmer mage and drive his new sword home, and Lydia slew the necromancer who had arrived last.

Belrand wasted no time in searching the bodies. "They might have potions or weapons we can use," he explained, as he noticed Elisif giving him a disapproving frown. "It would be a shame to die of wounds we could have healed with potions we left behind."

That made sense and the lesson, no doubt learned through experience, must have been part of the reason why Belrand had survived as a mercenary long enough to reach late middle age. Elisif cast a Healing Hands spell, recently taught to her by Sybille Stentor, on Lydia and Belrand, once he had finished looting the bodies, cast the spell on Roggvir. A few moments standing by the fire was all Elisif needed before she felt as good as new and ready to carry on.

Beyond the door a passage led to another chamber, this one open to the skies, the roof pierced by a shaft that continued down through the floor. Beams of sunlight shone through the hole, snow had drifted in from above and lay in a light dusting on the ground, and a few small trees grew at the sides of the area. A skeleton was patrolling and moved to attack as they entered. Lydia smashed it to pieces before it could do any harm.

There seemed, at first glance, to be no exit from the room. Elisif assumed that the necromancers they had slain had been the source of the reported strange lights and sounds. That being the case the expedition had come to a successful conclusion. Belrand soon dashed her hopes.

"There's something down there," the spellsword said, staring down into the hole in the floor. "I can hear muffled voices. Some kind of… chanting."

Elisif looked down into the hole and saw a paved stone floor below. That would only make sense if the lower area led to somewhere else. She listened and could just make out the chanting Belrand had reported. He was right and the mission was not finished.

"We'll have to go down there," she said, trying not to show her disappointment. "It's too far down to jump, though, and I don't see how we could get back up. Any ideas?"

"I can see ledges on the sides of the shaft," Roggvir said. "They're not too far down, and from there the rest of the drop would not be too severe."

"An experienced adventurer always carries rope," said Belrand, opening up his pack, extracting a coiled rope, and unwinding it. He tested the strength of one of the trees, shook his head, tried another and, satisfied, tied the rope to it securely. "I'm sure there'll be another way out but, in case there isn't or we can't get to it, this will give us a way to climb back up."

"A good thought," Lydia said.

"Indeed so," Elisif agreed. "My decision to hire you was wise." Should she promise him a bonus? She decided that making that offer at this stage lacked style and it would be better to reward him at the completion of the mission.

With the aid of the rope their descent was straightforward. One of the ledges turned out to have a recess at the back and Belrand, investigating it, found two old burial urns containing a sheaf of steel-tipped arrows, still in usable condition even after what must have been five hundred years, and a stash of coin. He helped himself but left some of the coins behind; "Out of respect for the dead," he explained.

Once everyone had reached the floor they moved on, down a steep slope, and through a tunnel that opened out into a vast, high-ceilinged, cavern. They emerged onto a ledge, high above the cave floor, and ahead of them they saw a castle.

Elisif's jaw dropped. A castle, underground. It was a remarkable, awe-inspiring, sight. Especially with the streamers of purple light that were swirling and flickering about the tallest tower. And then she heard the chanting, clearly enough to make out the words, and her blood ran cold.

"Potema, hear our call and awaken. We summon you!"

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They pressed on, through winding passages and down flights of steps, fighting necromancers and draugr as they went. The advantage of numbers was with them, as the foe met them one or two at a time, until they began to go up toward the castle itself. As they drew near Elisif heard a voice answering the chanting and a chill of horror went through her; it was Potema herself.

"Yes! Yes! Return me to this realm."

"As our voices summon you, the blood of the innocent binds you, Wolf Queen," the necromancers atop the tower chanted.

"What? What are you doing?" Potema's voice demanded imperiously.

"Summoned with words, bound with blood," the chant continued.

"You ants don't have the power to bind _me_ ," Potema sneered.

The chanting went on, answered by further taunts from Potema's spirit, but then the four adventurers found themselves under attack again and Elisif could pay no further attention to the sounds of the ritual.

Two mages accompanied by three draugr, two of them the bigger and heavier-armored Restless variant, rushed from the tower and attacked. Belrand summoned a spectral wolf familiar and the fight became one of even numbers. Roggvir and the spectral wolf both went for one of the Restless Draugr and felled it, and then Lydia struck down one of the mages, but before they could make use of their advantage of numbers another two necromancers arrived and Raised both of the fallen. Seven versus five, and then the Conjure Familiar spell ran out and it was seven to four, Frostbite spells slowing Lydia and Roggvir and Belrand's Lesser Ward starting to fail.

Roggvir was wounded by a draugr's sword, driven back shielding himself desperately against a rain of blows, and then he lost his footing on the steps and tumbled down to lie dazed and vulnerable. The draugr descended the stairs after him and no-one was free to go to his aid. Elisif was face-to-face with a necromancer, trying to force herself through his Frostbite spell into sword range, but he was retreating ahead of her and staying out of reach. Then he came up against a wall, his retreat was brought to a halt, and as his left hand went to his belt for a dagger Elisif thrust the Skyforge blade through his chest.

The draugr threatening Roggvir toppled and crumbled into ashes, scattering on the steps, and its sword and shield clattered on the stone. The mage slain by Elisif must have reanimated it and, with his death, the spell was broken. Belrand shot an Ice Spike through the chest of another necromancer, dropping him to his knees, and Lydia seized the opportunity and turned from her own opponent to strike off the head of the wounded mage. She spun quickly, returning to her original foe, but he too had been Reanimated and his controller had just died. The mage fell in a heap of ash and Lydia sought a new opponent.

Now Elisif, Lydia, and Belrand faced one mage and two draugr; even numbers, but the mage's magicka was running out and he turned to flee. Lydia had set aside her bow, early in the fight, in favor of sword and shield; now she picked it up and put an arrow into the fleeing mage's back. Belrand held his own against the remaining Restless Draugr, unable to finish it off but successfully keeping it from slaying him, until Lydia turned her bow on it and drove a shaft through its undead chest. Elisif, facing the weakest draugr, slew it without difficulty. Roggvir had picked himself up, by this time, and after taking a moment to make use of healing spells and potions they were ready to continue on.

Into the tower they went, with all haste. Elisif knew they had to stop the ritual before Potema returned. With the Wolf Queen under their control the necromancers would pose a formidable threat to all of Skyrim; if she broke free it might be even worse. The first thing a resurrected Potema would do would be to seek to regain the crown of Solitude and, to do that, she would have to kill Elisif. The Wolf Queen had a fearful reputation and Elisif really, really, didn't want to have to face her. Much better to end it now.

Two necromancers and a draugr came down the stairs to meet them. There was a brief and frantic exchange of blows and spells before the draugr fell, leaving the mages unprotected, and once the four warriors closed with them swords trumped spells. They rushed on up the stairs and emerged at the top to find three mages standing, with arms outspread, beside an altar that filled most of the area. Two of them broke off from their ritual and defended themselves with Ice Spikes; the third, an elderly woman who looked wholesome and respectable, maintained her posture and seemed to be taking no notice of the intruders.

Elisif found herself side by side with Lydia facing a male necromancer whose face was painted to resemble a skull. She withstood his Ice Spikes, aided by her shield's enchantment, and landed a solid blow with her sword. He reeled and Lydia finished him off. Meanwhile Roggvir and Belrand were fighting a young woman mage and they, too, slew their opponent quickly.

The old woman gestured with her right hand and the male mage got to his feet. At once he began casting Ice Spikes again. Elisif protected herself with her shield and concentrated on the old woman, who joined her undead colleague in casting Ice Spikes, and one got past Elisif's shield and pierced her armor. Pain shot through her, and her muscles stiffened, but she was able to close and strike with her sword.

The blow bounced off the woman's robes as if they had been steel armor. A Mage Armor spell, Elisif thought, probably Stoneflesh. She struck again, and again, as the old mage tried to back away. There was nowhere to go in the confined space and at such close quarters swords were superior to spells. Elisif's companions chopped down the war-painted mage, again, and joined her in attacking the old woman. The Stoneflesh couldn't stand up to the barrage of blows from all sides and she went down and lay still.

The swirling lights went out. For the first time Elisif was able to see that there were holes in the cavern roof, not far above their heads, and daylight filtered through. Between that, and braziers on the altar, the area was well lit. The first priority, of course, was healing but, once everyone was restored to health, Belrand took advantage of the illumination to search the bodies and ash piles for valuables. He laid everything he found out on the rim of the altar.

"What do you want done with these spoils of war, Jarl Elisif?" he asked. "It looks as if almost everything is for the use of mages."

Elisif thought for a moment. "I'm not really used to this sort of thing," she said, "but suppose we divide up the potions and then each pick one thing, sell the rest, and split the money?"

"Very generous, my lady, and eminently fair," said Belrand.

"I don't think there is anything I can use," Lydia said, "and the same would apply to Roggvir."

"Then a larger share of the proceeds for you two," said Elisif. "We'll sort it out back in Solitude."

"I'll put this ring on now, if that is all right with you, my lady," Belrand said. "It will boost my magicka and it wouldn't do any good sitting in a pouch." He donned the ring, after Elisif agreed, and turned his attention to a book that was lying on the altar. "Let's have a look at this. Probably a tome of dark magic." His eyebrows rose as he examined the book. "No, it's 'The Refugees'. A skill tome for Light Armor. You should read it at once, Jarl Elisif."

"Do we have time?" Elisif wondered.

"It's not long," Belrand said, "and it might be useful if we meet more foes before we leave this place. The necromancers may be slain but there might be more draugr in these caves. The rest of us can read it later."

Elisif could see his point and took the book. She read the tale, a short piece about refugees fleeing the Camoran Usurper and hearing a warning about the coming of someone worse, and felt knowledge growing within her in a similar way to how she had felt when she donned her Studded Armor of the Major Squire. She would be able to move in combat just a little better now; definitely useful. She packed the book away and turned her attention back to the others.

Belrand was standing beside a lever set into the parapet. "This drops a drawbridge that leads across the chasm to that other tower over there," he said. "I think it might be another way out."

"Then let us investigate," said Elisif. "I'd rather not have to climb up that shaft even with the help of your rope."

Belrand pulled the lever, the drawbridge dropped, and the four made their way across. There they found a staircase leading down and also a treasure chest. Belrand opened it, wary of traps, and inside found a couple of sacks of coin, a gold circlet set with a ruby and two dark green gems, and three spell books; Candlelight, Healing, and Lightning Bolt.

The spell tomes were used immediately. Belrand took Lightning Bolt, a significant addition to his repertoire of offensive spells, Elisif took Candlelight, and Lydia, after hesitating because of her typical Nord distrust of magic, accepted that Healing was too useful an ability to pass up and learned the spell.

Belrand identified the circlet. "A Circlet of Minor Alchemy," he said. "Very nice, but no use in here. I'll add it to the stuff to be shared out later."

Elisif decided that the circlet would be her choice, when they divided up the items, but agreed that there was no point in wearing it now. She would stick to the Circlet of Minor Archery she had acquired at Robber's Gorge. There was nothing else of interest on the tower top and the group headed off down the stairs.

There was nothing of interest in the rest of the tower, either, just an empty chamber and a passageway. It led out into the outermost part of Wolfskull Cave, mere yards from the entrance, but a few feet up on a ledge so that the opening was invisible from below. After a short detour back into the cave, to collect Belrand's rope, they left the cave and emerged into the open air.

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The sun was very low in the sky but hadn't quite set. "We should be back in Solitude in time for the evening meal," Elisif said, as they left the snow behind and walked down the road that led past the old Temple of Meridia. Now that the adventure was over she could relax; she hadn't realized how tensed up she had been, during all the stealthy approaches and bursts of heart-poundingly violent combat, and she felt tiredness, but also a warm sense of accomplishment, flooding through her. "You're all welcome to dine at the Blue Palace."

"That would be an honor, Jarl Elisif," Belrand said, "if you don't mind that I lack the manners for dining with nobles."

"I must decline, my lady," Roggvir said. "It's been too long since I saw my sister and her family."

"I understand," Elisif said. "It must have been hard for them. I'm not…"

"What's that?" Lydia exclaimed, interrupting her. She let her shield slip from her arm, unslung her bow, and nocked an arrow. Belrand drew his sword with his right hand and held his left ready for spell-casting.

"What do you see?" Elisif asked, as she drew her Skyforge sword, but the answer became obvious before Lydia had a chance to reply.

Several Stormcloak soldiers emerged from a wooded area and blocked the road ahead of them. To their left more Stormcloaks appeared around the corner of Meridia's temple, on the right others were descending the rocky slope, and a glance behind revealed half a dozen more coming down the road to cut off any retreat.

They were surrounded, no way out, and Elisif knew the Stormcloaks were here for her. There could be no other reason for such an ambush. But how could they have known? There was no time to think about that now. She had to escape.

"Surrender, Jarl Elisif," a tall Nord, who wore armor trimmed with bearskin, shouted from the group ahead. "You will not be harmed, and there is nowhere to flee."

Elisif hesitated. There must have been at least twenty Stormcloaks, probably more, and fighting them seemed futile. Yet if she surrendered they would drag her off to captivity in Windhelm, to use her against the Legion and the Empire, as she had feared when Stormcloaks had tried to seize her in Helgen. The worst-case scenario would be being forced into marriage with Ulfric and she couldn't face that. She'd rather die fighting. And, it occurred to her, maybe she might be able to escape; the very fact that they'd be trying to capture her, not kill, would give her an edge. If she could break through, and reach the main Dragon Bridge to Solitude road, there was a chance a Legion patrol would be passing by.

The Stormcloaks were closing in from all sides and she would have to act quickly. There was no time to consult with her companions, even though her actions would put their lives at risk. She raised her sword. "Victory or Sovngarde!" she yelled, and charged.

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One Stormcloak wrenched Elisif's arms behind her and another one bound her wrists together with rope. She struggled, to no avail, but at least she was successful in holding herself back from sobbing. The Stormcloak commander stood in front of her and stared at her bruised face and swollen, bleeding, lips. His right eye was blank and sightless, no doubt the result of some old injury, and he looked the very model of a battle-scarred veteran. Elisif recognized him as someone she had met in the past, before the war, but could not recall his name.

"I have to admit that you're a true Nord, Jarl Elisif," he said, respect evident in his tone. "You put up quite a fight. And that Housecarl of yours was a veritable sabre-cat."

"You killed her," Elisif said, bitterly. "And Belrand and Roggvir." The Stormcloaks had been determined to take her alive, even after she had killed two of them, and she had been brought down by being tackled from behind and subdued with punches to the face as another man stood on the wrist of her sword-hand. The others, not so valuable as captives, had been hacked down with swords and axes.

"Roggvir?" the commander echoed, his eyebrows climbing. "The man who opened the gates for Ulfric? I thought he had been thrown into your condemned cells."

"I pardoned him and took him into my service," Elisif said. "Alas that I brought him to his death."

"Well, it was a valiant death, and he will be welcomed in Sovngarde," said the commander. "This was a fight worthy of heroes. Four against twenty-six, and you slew eight before you were overcome."

"Nine, Istar," a Stormcloak warrior corrected him. "Bjarik died before we could get a healing potion into him. And Torben has lost his arm and will never fight again."

"Talos have mercy on him," said Istar, "but we must move on. We will take our dead and injured back to camp, for now, but hide the other bodies in the bushes, out of sight of the road. I am sorry, Jarl Elisif, I know they deserve proper burial, but we cannot spare the time."

"Can't you at least leave them where they will be found and taken to Solitude?" Elisif pleaded. She remembered the man now; Istar Cairn-Breaker, a warrior of some renown, who had gained his reputation fighting against the Forsworn.

Istar shook his head. "If your people find where they fell, they will search the area," he said. "I want it thought that you never left Wolfskull Cave, at least until we have you well on the way to Whiterun."

"Istar!" called one of the Stormcloaks. "This one lives still! The woman."

Elisif's heart leapt. Lydia was alive!

"Should I give her the mercy stroke?" the Stormcloak went on, and Elisif's heart sank again.

"No!" she protested. "Don't kill her! I beg you!"

"If she is savable, give her potions," Istar commanded, "then bring her with us. We can make use of her. I suspect that Elisif will be quite biddable when there is a knife at her Housecarl's throat." He turned his attention back to Elisif. "And give our captive Jarl a healing potion, too," he said. "At the moment she could not be called 'the Fair'. I am sure Ulfric would want her to be in good condition."

Elisif thought that made her sound like a horse, or a piece of furniture, and felt like spitting the potion back in his face. She would need to be fully fit to take advantage of any chance to escape that presented itself, however, and so she drank the potion when one of the Stormcloak soldiers held the bottle to her lips. Meanwhile Istar was picking up her fallen sword and shield.

"This sword is Skyforge steel," he said, his eyes widening as he looked at the blade. "Where did you get this, girl – Jarl Elisif? Eorlund Gray-Mane wouldn't sell his swords to any Imperial supporter, Jarl or not, indeed I have never heard of him selling blades to any but the Companions of Jorrvaskr. I can't believe that you have joined the Companions, for they would never accept a Jarl, nor that you have slain one and taken his sword. You fought well against us, I admit, but not well enough to be a match for a Companion."

"Eorlund's daughter Olfina gave it to me," Elisif told him. The longer she could keep him talking the greater the chance of someone coming upon the scene, she thought, and this close to Solitude anyone arriving would be far more likely to be loyal to the Empire than to the Stormcloaks. "She questioned my courage and honor and, when she found out that I had fought a dragon, she persuaded her father to part with the sword as a token of her regret and apology."

"You fought a dragon?" Istar shook his head. "This cannot be true. Unless… we have heard that the Greybeards have summoned a Dragonborn… but no. If you were the Dragonborn you would have used the Voice against us."

"I did not say that I fought the dragon alone," Elisif said. "I took command of a troop of Whiterun guards, and I had Lydia, and the Dragonborn arrived in time to finish off the dragon."

"Ah," said Istar. "Now that I have fought you I can see why the Whiterun guards would have followed you. I had always thought that you were naught but a pretty face but clearly that is not true and you are a true Nord. So, you have met the Dragonborn? You must tell me of him, but later. I see that my men have cleared away the bodies and it is time to move."

Elisif realized that the other Stormcloaks had been working during the conversation and her ploy to delay them had been, ironically, a waste of time. Lydia was on her feet now, her hands bound behind her like Elisif's, a bloody gash showing in the leather part of her armor between the breastplate and the waist-belt. Two Stormcloaks took hold of Elisif's arms, forcing her to walk between them, and another two hustled Lydia along.

To Elisif's surprise they went down the trail, all the way to where it joined the main road, and then turned left toward Solitude. They continued along that road for a full hundred yards, with all those not engaged in carrying bodies holding their weapons ready for instant action, before turning off and going down a slope in the direction of the Karth River. At first it didn't seem to lead anywhere, as a rocky ridge blocked the way, but then the Stormcloaks turned sharp right, heading east away from Solitude, and descended a steeper slope that took them below the level of the ridge that bordered the Solitude road. After passing through a screen of trees they emerged into a clearing and saw an encampment ahead of them.

There were more than a dozen tents, most big enough only for two people or three at the most, but three were larger. There was a forge, a blacksmith's workbench, a pedal-operated grindstone and an alchemy bench. Four horses were tethered at a wooden rail. All together it was a small but fully operational military camp only a few miles from the Imperial headquarters in Skyrim. It was invisible from the road and, as far as Elisif could tell, most of it would be hidden from viewers on the far bank of the river; obscured enough so that it would look like nothing more than a hunter's camp or one of the temporary encampments used by the Khajiit trading caravans. She was surprised that it hadn't been discovered, despite its clever positioning, but had to accept that it was likely to remain undetected. When there was a search for her it would be centered on Wolfskull Cave. There was little hope of rescue from the Haafingar Guard or the Legion.

Kaie. She would search, when she reached Solitude and discovered that Elisif was missing, and wouldn't give up easily. The Forsworn were supposed to be trackers of matchless skill – but was that truth, or merely a story told to make a savage and little-understood enemy seem even more alien and dangerous? Even if it was true, and Kaie could follow tracks along a stone-paved road, Elisif had no idea when Kaie would arrive in Solitude. She might be there already, having passed by while Elisif was in Wolfskull Cave, or she might not get there for another week, by which time the Stormcloaks no doubt would long since have carted Elisif off to Windhelm.

No, she could not count on anyone coming to her rescue. Elisif would have to escape by her own efforts – but she had no idea how that could be achieved.


End file.
